James Capretta had an excellent post on the Corner yesterday analyzing the letter President Obama sent Sens. Kennedy and Baucus before departing for the Middle East and Europe:
For starters, President Obama unequivocally endorses the creation of a new government-run insurance option for working age Americans and their families. For weeks, Senator Baucus has hinted that, well, maybe such an option isn't necessary. That led many on the left to put pressure back on Democrats in Congress to deliver what they had promised - or else. With the president's re-endorsement of the idea (he supported it during his campaign), it is now inconceivable that the Democrats won't include a heavily price-controlled government-run plan in the bill they try to pass. The Obama letter also endorses a so-called "individual mandate" - a requirement that everyone enroll in some kind of insurance or pay a penalty. During the 2008 campaign, then-Senator Obama made a big deal of opposing this idea - which was the centerpiece of Senator Hillary Clinton's reform agenda. Now, however, he has flip-flopped - as Politico reported - and endorsed it, so long as "hardship" cases are exempt.
The outlines of the Obama plan are clear: a public option and an individual mandate, with costs policed by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPac, an unelected body with oversight over a huge swath of the economy. The White House continues to obfuscate on where the money for all this will come from, though it's likely to support some taxation of health care benefits and, way down the road, a national sales tax. It all amounts to a complicated and expensive government intervention in the economy that will have unforeseen consequences. Why does Obama want to implement his plan as quickly as possible? Because he understands that, the longer he waits, the more unpopular ObamaCare will become.