Obama Takes to the Mic and Dems Go 'Back to the Drawing Board' on Health Care

Right now, the nation (or, at least the press corps, daytime TV watchers, and the Dems Obama's preparing to threaten) is waiting for President Barack Obama to give an unexpected address on health care, just announced this morning.

It was planned for 3:15 p.m., but as I'm sure Obama will tell us when he finally gets to the podium: "I have consistently said I would speak about health care reform at 4-ish or 4:30 p.m. Those who would claim I was supposed to speak at 3:15 p.m. are not telling the truth."

As we prepare to hear once again about the phantom contingent that "wants to do nothing," Democratic leader Steny Hoyer told ABC News shortly before the press conference that they're going to have to try doing this thing all over again. But it's not a "setback," per se:

"I'd say it's something we need to address," Hoyer, D-Md., told us. "Clearly, bringing costs down is one of the major objectives of this effort, and we've got to do that. And if the scoring and the projections don't indicate that we're doing that, we need to go back to the drawing board and make sure we do that."

"I wouldn't call it a setback, but it is certainly something that we have to pay attention to," Hoyer said.

He's referring to the CBO report, which says the health care reform bill on the table will not lower federal spending on health care, nor will it "bend the curve" toward eventual savings. Quite the contrary:

Elmendorf: No, Mr. Chairman. In the legislation that has been reported we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.

Conrad: So the cost curve in your judgment is being bent, but it is being bent the wrong way. Is that correct?

Elmendorf: The way I would put it is that the curve is being raised, so there is a justifiable focus on growth rates because of course it is the compounding of growth rates faster than the economy that leads to these unsustainable paths.

Update: Well, that was completely uneventful and unconvincing. As Phil Klein put it on Twitter, pretty accurately: "Obama arrives over 45 mins late, talks for 10 minutes, makes no news, and takes no questions."

Sen. Chuck Grassley was equally unimpressed:

Obama speech on health care reform: Absolutely nothing new, waste of time saying we are going to get that done. Baucus and I know that. but do it right.

Instead of addressing the CBO's report that the plan on the table will do the exact opposite of lowering costs, which is his stated goal, Obama simply insisted that the plan must lower costs, "and I mean it."

At the end of the press conference, Obama repeated several times that he's "absolutely convinced" that reform "will happen" this year, like a mantra. I guess that strategy makes sense if one thinks one's words are magical, all by themselves. But as Fred Barnes has noted in the past, Obama's aren't as magical as he likes to think.