Barack Obama used another public event on Thursday to push forward his agenda for healthcare reform on the eve of a vote that promises to be contentious at the very least. While his statements are predictable, it is the unwavering aspect of those words which give fiscally conservative Democrats and virtually all Republicans fuel to add to the fire as they aim to squelch passage in its current form. Nebulous talk of “cost controls” by Obama is doing very little to convert the duly stonewalled Republican critics. Today, those critics just got ammunition from the the Congressional Budget Office whose director firmly claimed Obama’s plans would do nothing but simply add to the already expansive trajectory of healthcare costs.

“The coverage proposals in this legislation would expand federal spending on health care to a significant degree and in our analysis so far we don’t see other provisions in this legislation reducing federal health spending by a corresponding degree.”    [-- CBO]

Obama, whose stance excludes the proposed taxation of employer sponsored benefits as an effort to stem those costs, is on the extremely unsteady tightwire between Democratic ideals and Republican acceptance; and he is trying to have his desires on the scope of this legislation pass the muster of both sides. He is beginning to learn that it is not an easy task, yet he stays on point — apparently with the help of the fictional “Harry” and “Louise” characters (who, in a campaign launched by the Right during Hillary Clinton’s campaign for universal care over fifteen years ago, squelched her attempts with PR aplomb). That’s right, “Harry” and “Louise” now support healthcare reform.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOr17a4ZOIU[/youtube]

Calling for bipartisanship, as the fictional couple does in the ad, has long since worn out its welcome. Obama knows it. No matter. He’ll also spend every waking moment until next month hyping the heck out of it no matter what the “cost”. | LINK

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