I’m really liking how the Obama administration is reframing the health care debate as a matter of fiscal necessity. As the budget overview notes, health cares costs will account for 20% of the economy by 2017 if nothing changes. A fifth of all national spending–public and private–will be committed to health care expenses. American businesses will struggle to compete on a global stage as the health care line on their balance sheets ravenously devour that would have otherwise been available for expansion or researching new products. Federal deficits will only get bigger, making future recessions more commonplace and more severe. Health care reform is not just some fuzzy feel-good liberal pet cause. It’s about guaranteeing national security and long-term fiscal discipline.
To put it another way, Obama is using conservative phrasing to talk about a progressive idea. And the Republicans don’t seem to have a clue about how to respond, other than to repeat the same tired campfire stories about big government and socialism.
