President Obama is back in the country, and today he made sure that everyone involved in the health care debate knows it. When he summoned the press this morning to announce his nomination of Dr. Regina Benjamin as the next surgeon general, Obama opened with a lengthy monologue about the importance of getting a health care overhaul done.
President Obama and Regina Benjamin, his choice for Surgeon General. (Getty Images/AFP/Tim Sloan)
“I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done,” Obama said. “Inaction is not an option. And for those naysayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don’t bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen, because the American people desperately need it.”
Obama was trying to tell Congress that his attention hasn’t wandered from health care just because he was out of the country, on visits to Russia and Africa. But the forceful rhetoric still leaves a host of specific question unresolved — like whether the president now intends to get more involved in the process, and whether he’ll ask the centrist House Blue Dog Democrats if they’re really prepared to sink a health care bill that doesn’t meet their specifications.
We may know more after Obama meets with Democratic leaders at the White House this afternoon to get a status report on the health care effort. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Obama wants to discuss “where we are and how we can move forward.” The key, of course, will be whether Obama is ready to start getting more specific about what he wants, as he did when he wrote a letter to Democratic committee chairmen last month that added some details to his general principles.
In a perfect world, Obama would like to see the Democratic Congress resolve the key policy disputes on its own. So far, he has been doing everything possible to avoid dictating a plan to the Hill the way Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton did in 1993. He’s determined not to repeat their mistake of getting too involved.
This is the month, however, that Obama will have to decide when it’s the right time to jump in. After all, not getting involved could turn out to be a mistake, too.
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