Time for the shake and bake

No news here, but obviously we're in a bit of a mess as far as moving health care reform forward. The only real answer to passing reform is for an intransigent House to pass a Senate bill that, for reasons mostly of politics and some of policy, many just don't like. Apparently, for some only perfection will do.

Passing reform is essential to reviving the Obama presidency and validating the Democratic Party's work over the past year. The President himself is in a bind to avoid looking impotent against a minority party and his own party's left flank. At the same time, he needs to maintain himself as being above the partisan warfare that continues on the right against all thing Democrat, and particularly himself. So the dilemma is, how do you achieve bipartisan consensus without an honest counterparty?

I agree with Josh Marshall that passing the Senate bill is the only possibility, for reform and for the Democrats' future. And passing reform in pieces parts is just nonsense, unrealistic, unworkable, and stupid politics. Unlike Josh, however, I don't think the clock has stopped ticking and the Senate bill has to be passed today. In fact, I think passing the bill today would be dangerous and foolhardy. (I think the whining and apocolyptic nonsense from the left is also and even moreso dangerous and foolhardy, but, hey, I'm not a politician.)

The important thing to remember is that the President has his State of the Union speech coming up next week. It's the most important platform that anyone can have, and the timing could not be any more perfect. It would be crazy for Obama to jump into the middle of the fray today, when he can fine-tune a pitch-perfect message for the SOTU.

He has the single voice that can settle the stomachs of the panicked, the opportunity to once again explain what the Senate's reform bill does, show why it does what it does, and put the onus on the delay and kill tactics of the GOP. The President has the opportunity to make clear what needs to be done, while showing his willingness to listen and hear all sides - but not in a way that gives others all of the control.

My view today is that the President should use the State of the Union address to send the GOP and America to school. Lesson 1: Coverage for pre-existing conditions. You say you want coverage without restrictions based on pre-existing conditions? The only way we can achieve that is by imposing a mandate, because otherwise you kill the system with free-riders who only join the system when they need coverage; that type of system would only insure the unhealthy, making insurance unaffordable, essentially fee-for service. You will have made the system worse, not better, compounding the problems that are the genesis of the reform effort, such as covering the poor, preventing medical bankruptcies. That's the choice, America. That's the choice, GOP. Are you serious about reform, or are you willing to be honest and tell America that you are opposed to any type of reform, other than "tort reform"?

Force the GOP to answer the question in their post-SOTU remarks or show their disingenuousness by ignoring or changing the topic.

To enhance the President's bipartisan pedigree, he could use the SOTU speech to present the nation with two options: (1) health care reform under the Senate bill, or (2) a bipartisan reform package to be negotiated in good faith under specific principles. Invite the players, Senators and Congressman, Democrats and Republicans, to a table set at the White House or Camp David starting the Monday after the State of the Union. Invite CNN and MSNBC and, if you must, FoxNews, to broadcast the negotiations and discussions live. Enforce good faith discussions by all talking in the sunshine. Ask the news media to abide by one simple rule - show the proceedings, explain what shorthand means, and not spin. (I know, that last sentence is fantasy.)

Make the GOP negotiators present a reasoned case for how to cover people with pre-existing conditions without a mandate. Do you prevent someone from getting back into the plan within 5 years from dropping out? Is that acceptable? Something else? If you don't have an answer, you are not negotiating in good faith. The time for taking pot-shots and not offering real solutions, and not productively engaging in the process, is over.

But just as importantly, this type of event cannot be the end. A deadline must be set, and not one that keeps rolling on. Set a target date - and force a commitment from the House to agree to pass the Senate bill - when the House will pass the Senate bill, which President Obama will sign into law, if the conference does not yield an honest, workable, alternative bill. How about two weeks? Too short, you say? Well, tough; you've been at this for most of a year already, and all of the information is already out there. Get to business, or explain to the voters why the GOP wasn't willing to fight for the principals it claims. If you cannot, the Senate bill will become law, because we need to move forward and address the nation's other issues. No more nonsense.

Do I like that type of show, or think it would actually be productive? No. I don't believe the Republicans are capable of acting in good faith, of honestly presenting arguments. I don't even think they actually have arguments; their opposition is nothing more than that; just opposition, designed to harm the President. It's not about seriousness, it's all about politics. And this example is just that, an example of one way that Obama can put the lie to the GOP.

There may be better, smarter alternatives. And it may be that what I discussed above is too clever by half, that it introduces new uncertainty into a process already bogged down in wasted effort. It's more likely that the best approach is for the President to say to the House, in his SOU, that it is simply time to pass the Senate's health care bill. But upon its passage, all the key players are welcome to get back to the table so that the Senate and the House, Democrat and Republican, can sit down and work out reasoanble fixes for the problem areas in the statute, which may be passed through reconciliation, but which preferably get passed through the normal process, with coorperation from the Republicans. Again, this is the Republicans' chance to put up or shut up.

In either case, the ultimate goal must be the same.

It's time for President Obama to out-politic the Republicans. Make the Republican Ursulas reveal the Sea Witch hiding behind Ariel's voice. Mixing cartoon analogies, it's Obama's turn to Gulp down that can of spinach and save Olive Oyl.

Storm into the ring like Hulk Hogan and turn what looks like hopelessness into a grand victory.

And then, pass the Senate bill.

It's time to call the Republicans' bluff.