Now that the media has stopped covering Sarah Palin every second and Obama has the opportunity to take the offensive there are two main points he must make on domestic policy:
- Most Americans will receive a tax cut under his program, not a tax increase as McCain claims, and
- His health care plan is in no way a “government take over of health care.”
These are probably the two most significant distortions of his views coming from Republicans which many voters still believe. In refuting these distortions, I do not mean that Obama should only complain of the manner in which the Republicans are distorting his views, but he must make his actual policies clear. The information is readily available at his web site, and he has discussed this in interviews, but the facts are still not making it through all the static coming from the right wing noise machine.
The primary message is to get voters to understand his actual plans. The secondary message is to make voters aware of the degree to which his plans are being distorted by Republicans so that they are less likely to pay attention to dishonest attacks from McCain in the future.
Unfortunately, while McCain has been far more dishonest in his ads, distortions always wind up coming from both sides in the heat of a political campaign. To make honesty an issue which will work for him in this campaign, Obama must strive to avoid distortions of McCain’s views, such as on Social Security. There is plenty to criticize McCain for with regards to his actual views without exaggerating them.
Because of the economic debacle we find ourselves in, I doubt we will see any movement in the healthcare arena.
I am sure the conservative, socialism screaming, “privatize the profits, socialize the losses” crowd are wetting their pants with glee.
Even before the current economic debacle I’ve written that it is unlikely that Obama’s full plan will be enacted, at least in the short run. I may be wrong, but I think that changes in health care will continue to come as a series of incremental reforms. At least Obama will take positive steps in the right direct, while McCain’s health care plans are insane.
Regardless of whether Obama gets his full plan through or only parts at a time, to return to the topic of the post, his plan does not represent a government take over of health care. Actually his plans have more impact on the insurance industry than on health care, and I don’t think most rational Americans see anything wrong with shaking things up with regards to the insurance industry.