The other big O
Friday, November 7 2008
Jonathan Cohn at the New Republic has an article outlining the prospects for health care reform in the new Congress, which THCB contrasts to Maggie Mahar’s warning that health care reform might have to wait. Maggie makes some good points about Obama’s priorities, but what Cohn describes is a lot of energy in Congress to tackle health care. I don’t see any reason why Congress should wait to learn Obama’s priorities; it’s hard to imagine any health reform bill that made it past Max Baucus and Ted Kennedy earning a veto in the next Administration. Sure, there’s a lot Obama could do, if he wanted, but not a lot that he needs to do. If Obama wants to focus instead on bringing the troops home (which doesn’t need Congressional approval) and managing the economic crisis (he already has the authority to do so), that isn’t anything that would keep legislators from doing their jobs.
Meanwhile, I think Peter Orzag‘s involvement gives the next Congress a pretty solid rationale to get moving on health care reform. Cohn discusses Orszag’s role at some length; as head of the CBO, Orzsag will be responsible for the number-crunching that determines whether or not any reform is fiscally feasible. That’s not to say Orszag is partisan – in fact, he seems to be well respected on both sides. Nonetheless, Orszag has made clear that health care reform is essential to the long-term viability of our economy and government. In some respects, Orszag’s support is more crucial than any single legislator’s, so if he wants reform sooner rather than later, that’s as good an argument as Congress should need to get started.
