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President Barack Obama again used his headline-grabbing clout to turn his pitch for healthcare reform into Story of the Day. Last Wednesday was the most recent previous time the healthcare debate topped the networks' agenda when he invited their trio of in-house physicians to interview him at the White House. Now the President offers an in-person q-&-a on his legislative goals to CBS anchor Katie Couric, who anchored from the capital. CBS, naturally, led with healthcare. ABC chose the state of the national economy and NBC looked to the west coast as California claimed to have reached a deal to close its $26bn state budget deficit.

"If the stimulus plan is not really working, at least for now, why should Americans sign off on spending billions of dollars on healthcare reform?" was the non-sequitur that CBS' Couric posed to the President. "Who is to say you are reading the tea leaves accurately now?" "Meaning what?" came Obama's puzzled reply. Couric explained: "When you make these projections and estimates and cost savings, it is a pretty dicey proposition--don't you think?--to predict economics into the future." Obama remained calm: "If what you are saying is that economists are often wrong, you are absolutely right about that; but that cannot be a rationale for inaction."

The President laid down four tests for the healthcare legislation. "If I am not happy with the end product I will not sign a bill," he pledged. He demanded more competition between plans; guaranteed coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions; no increase in the federal deficit; and a reduction in long-term healthcare costs. Obama was slippery about that last point. At one point he demanded that the bill should "reduce costs;" at another he said he wanted to "bend the cost curve so that healthcare inflation is reduced." Couric did not ask him which he meant.

Andrew Tyndall 7/22/09 8:09:19 pm

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