Health care: Democrats go it alone
Will Obama give up on winning over Republicans and try passing reform without them?
"It took a little while," said Alex Koppelman in Salon, "but the White House has apparently read all the available tea leaves and decided that it's not worth going after Republican votes on healthcare." (watch Democratic Rep. Barney Frank spar with a critic) According to a New York Times report, the Obama administration is preparing to go it alone, and focus on getting enough congressional support from other Democrats to get a health-care reform bill passed. "Still, this doesn't mean the end of negotiations over healthcare legislation, and it doesn't mean that passing a bill will be easy."
There's no reason it should be easy, said Jonah Goldberg in National Review. The opposition to ObamaCare isn't isolated to a handful of "Neanderthals" on the far right as the White House "and its cheerleaders in and out of the media would have you believe. The president's ideas for health-care reform have been "tanking in the polls" recently because they're unpopular with most Americans.
The Obama administration is hinting it's willing to make significant compromises, said Carl Leubsdorf in The Dallas Morning News, such as retreating on the "public option" -- a government-run insurance alternative to compete with private health insurance. So the debate seems to be entering its "end game." There is more negotiating ahead -- it will be tricky getting House Democrats to drop the public option, for example -- but in the end the Democrats must realize that, after promising health-care reform for so long, failing to deliver now would "be disastrous."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The Pam Bondi and Dan Bongino schism threatens Trump's DOJ
In the Spotlight Two MAGA partisans find themselves on either end of a growing scandal over Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to White House officials
-
8 ways Trump's bill will change your taxes
The Explainer The 'big beautiful bill' was recently signed into law. Here's what it might mean for your wallet.
-
One great cookbook: 'The Cook You Want to Be'
The Week Recommends And the way you want to eat — now