U.S. Health Care Reform: All or Nothing

The criticism raining down upon Barack Obama over the past few weeks obscured one thing: his extraordinary talent for attracting supporters with just the power of his words.

With his bellicose speech to a joint session of Congress Wednesday evening, United States President Barack Obama was able to regain a measure of support from the Democratic Party and the public for his, at times, controversial health care reform plans.

In view of the groundbreaking importance this project has for Obama, personally, and for the remainder of his term in office, that’s saying quite a lot. Obama had come under fire – even from his own party – when, in an attempt at bipartisan compromise, he laid out which of his reform goals were negotiable and which were not.

More importantly, Obama gave a clear and unmistakable message to his supporters that he intended to stick by his promises to provide health insurance to the 47 million citizens currently without it and that he fully intended to force through his reform plans. But it was an equally clear signal to his political opponents that they could now stigmatize his plans as too expensive and too interventionist. Obama countered by saying that he was ready and willing to meet anyone interested in having a serious dialogue with him on the subject. That separates him from the many Republicans who limit themselves to putting forth nothing more than outrageous emotional arguments.

To reach a compromise, the president would have had to abandon his original goal in order to win over as many critics as possible. His attempt to bridge the chasm between conservative and liberal America has failed. Compromises are possible only if the opposing side is also willing to make them. And in view of the Democratic majority in Congress, it will be sufficient for the president to gain the support of his own party.

By demonstrating his resolve before Congress to get reforms passed, Obama has raised his own personal level of involvement significantly. He is prepared to put more political capital into this important project, regardless of the dangers of failure. Obama wouldn’t be the first man in the White House to come away bloodied in his fight to restructure the fragmentary and inefficient American health care system. The success or failure of health care reform will be the determining factor in just how strong Obama may be in getting other important legislation passed and how much of his remaining agenda can be realized. If he fails on this first major issue, the remaining three-plus years of his presidency will be very long.