Posted by Kristie Arslan - Tonight is a big night for the President. In case you haven’t heard, President Barack Obama will be addressing a special joint session of Congress on health care reform tonight at 8pm ET. The address will be broadcast on most major (ABC, CBS, NBC) as well as cable news (CNBC, CNN, FNC, MSNBC) networks, and will also be available online at barackobama.com. I encourage all to tune in.
The million dollar question, or rather the $1 trillion dollar question in this case, is what exactly will President Obama be saying in his address this evening? Will he or won’t he get tough on Members of Congress? Will our Commander in Chief finally take command of the reform efforts or will he continue to let Congressional partisanship rear its ugly head?
We’re not sure, but if it was up to us, the President’s speech would include:
- Recommendations for specifically helping the more than 22 million self-employed, such as fixing the deductibility of health insurance or the expansion of Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs);
- Proposals that provide small business and the self-employed with actual and immediate cost savings, not “possible” or “potential” long-term relief from high health care costs;
- Market reforms that help, not hinder the backbone of our nations’ economy: micro-business;
- And ideas for expanding access to coverage without also increasing taxes or our federal deficit.
The NASE will be watching the speech (and taking notes!), so be sure to check back tomorrow for our commentary and to share your thoughts on the President’s speech and the reform proposals with us.
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