To generally positive media reviews, President Obama addressed Congress for the first time last night. Obama listed healthcare reform as one of the central pillars of his recovery plan, but he reserved offering specifics of his plan until he outlines his budget Thursday. Post-speech TV analysis on specific reaction to Obama's healthcare reform remarks was limited.
On ABC News (2/24, 10:20 p.m.), White House bureau chief George Stephanopoulos said, "Interesting the way the president approached healthcare. He didn't lead with the idea of expanding coverage for more Americans. He led with cost containment. He knows that the only way you can solve this problem, and believes the only way you can solve this problem in the long run is to get cost controlled, and the big government programs with Medicare and Medicaid that will help get cost control in the private sector, and only then can you hope to expand coverage."
In a front page story, the New York Times (2/25, A1, Zeleny) reports, "Obama urged the nation on Tuesday to see the economic crisis as reason to raise its ambitions, calling for expensive new efforts to address energy, healthcare, and education programs even as he warned that more money might be needed to bail out banks." Obama "was vague about how he intends to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, saying only that the budget he will release on Thursday will make a down payment on the goal of 'quality, affordable healthcare for every American.'"
Also in a front page story, the Los Angeles Times (2/25, Parsons, Nicholas) reports that Obama "did not say how the spending plan would begin reducing the ranks of the more than 47 million people in America without [healthcare] coverage, a potentially contentious process that is sure to stoke an ideological battle over government's role in providing healthcare." He also did not "indicate how his administration would begin wringing savings from the gargantuan healthcare system, a process likely to be equally difficult."
The Wall Street Journal (2/25, Weisman) reports that Obama "vowed to tame healthcare costs while expanding access to insurance, and promised to not let the opportunity for comprehensive reform slip away, as has been the case for many presidents before."
USA Today (2/25, Wolf), the Washington Post (2/25, A1, Pearlstein), the AP (2/25, Loven), the Washington Times (2/25, Dinan), McClatchy (2/25, Thomma), CNN (2/25, Martin), The Politico (2/25, Rogers), the Detroit Free Press (2/25, Spangler), Roll Call (2/25, Koffler), and The Hill (2/25, Youngman) also cover the president's speech.
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