Tonight the president made a spirited argument before Congress on the need for health care reform.  Perhaps his best and most important line in the speech came near the middle:

...I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can’t find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice.

That choice, the president stated, should come in the form of a public option.

...an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange.  Let me be clear – it would only be an option for those who don’t have insurance.  No one would be forced to choose it, and it would not impact those of you who already have insurance.  In fact, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, we believe that less than 5% of Americans would sign up.
 
Despite all this, the insurance companies and their allies don’t like this idea.  They argue that these private companies can’t fairly compete with the government.  And they’d be right if taxpayers were subsidizing this public insurance option.  But they won’t be.  I have insisted that like any private insurance company, the public insurance option would have to be self-sufficient and rely on the premiums it collects.  But by avoiding some of the overhead that gets eaten up at private companies by profits, excessive administrative costs and executive salaries, it could provide a good deal for consumers.  It would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better, the same way public colleges and universities provide additional choice and competition to students without in any way inhibiting a vibrant system of private colleges and universities.
 
It’s worth noting that a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I’ve proposed tonight. 

This was the president's strongest argument yet for health care reform. 

As I have said before, health care reform is a moral issue.  Religious leaders have been saying that for a generation.  To leave tens of millions of Americans without health insurance in the midst of such wealth is, simply put, a sin.  President Obama rightly invoked Senator Kennedy's memory and words tonight to make that moral case.

Only a strong public option, however, will help us reach the goal of universal care.  There may be different ways to shape the public option but I agree with Progressive House democrats who have said they will vote against any bill that does not include a strong public option simply for the reason that without one the insurance companies will never cover all of our people. 

Sadly, most Republicans seem opposed to any kind of meaningful reform.  Perhaps the oddest moment of the speech came when U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) actually heckled the president.  The Republican response offered by Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) was filled with, you've just got to say it, lies that would make Sarah Palin proud.

Another strong moment came near the end of the address when the president declared:

I understand how difficult this health care debate has been.  I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them.  I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road – to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term. 
 
But that’s not what the moment calls for.  That’s not what we came here to do.  We did not come to fear the future.  We came here to shape it.  I still believe we can act even when it’s hard.  I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress.  I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.

I believe that as well and I hope the president and the Congress can deliver real reform.

Related:  Listen to the audio podcast of my remarks at the early September Health Care rally here in Portland, Oregon:

Download CCPDXHealthCareRally082909

(click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).

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