HEALTHCARE UPDATE….Jon Cohn says that despite doubts in liberal circles that Obama will aggressively pursue healthcare reform this year, high-ranking Obamaites have confirmed that it will be a “central focus” of his upcoming budget:
In interviews over the past week, administration officials have said repeatedly that the dobuts about Obama’s commitment are unfounded. They say Obama himself has indicated health care is a top priority, to be pursued shortly after the debate over the economic stimulus package is over.
….”I’ve been in meetings with him and it’s clear this guy is committed to getting health care and getting coverage to everybody,” says one high-ranking member of the administration. “There’s no question in my mind.”
And while these advisers acknowledged that the question of whether to deal with health care in the next budget had been under discussion, another senior official on Sunday indicated a decision had already been made: “Health care reform will be included — and indeed a central focus — of the budget,” this official said, while declining to offer more details.
We should stop being surprised by stuff like this. If there’s one thing we should all have figured out about Obama by now, it’s the fact that his priorities and his political beliefs are not will-o-the-wisps. The big ticket items he talked about during the campaign are things he’s thought hard about and believes deeply in. They weren’t just dodges to win a few votes here and there.
From a lefty point of view, there’s both upside and downside to this. The upside is obvious: he said he wanted to withdraw from Iraq, pass major healthcare legislation, and take serious action on global warming, and he will. At the same time, he also said he wanted to work cooperatively with the opposition, add troops to Aghanistan, and continue Predator raids into Pakistan. Liberals might not like those promises quite so much, but guess what? He’s apparently pretty committed to all that stuff too.
In other words, he’s doing what he said he would do. How about that?
