September 09 ,2009

From Greg Sargent's blog, theplumline, comes a primer on what to expect during President Obama's crucial address to a joint session of Congress tonight on health care reform.

Some of the key talking points:

--Obama wants to make clear that he has two overriding goals: to bring "stability and security" to Americans who already have health insurance today, and "affordable coverage" to those who don't.

--that his plan will reduce the skyrocketing costs of health care which continues to goup at an untenable pace.

--that he believes health care reform should be bipartisan.

--that the Republicans must decide if they genuinely are willing to work in a bipartisan manner or if they will continue to vote against reform

--Obama will state what health care reform means to both those who have insurance now and those who do not. He will also try to clarify confusion sewn by those defending the status quo.

--He will attempt to answer the major questions about how to move the reform process ahead and to make clear what he considers to be real reform.

--Obama will say that foes of health care reform either must propose their own plan or explain why American should do nothing when costs are rising three times faster than the average wage in America and number of Americans who are not covered at all or are not adequately covered continues to grow.

--Finally, expect Obama to have a few words for Sarah Palin. In addition to asserting that her claims are false(no, he never wanted to kill her Down Syndrome baby), he'll say her ideas are scary and risky.