So let’s get to it: Obama wants national health care reform. Probably he wants this to be his legacy. And if I know anything about politics, I know he wants this to happen soon, to overshadow any weird crap that will happen in Copenhagen this winter, and to carry him through for the 2012 elections. And why not? Hope and change, dear reader, hope and change.

Call it socialism, anti-capitalism, or the best idea ever that’s been a long time coming, Obama is stumping for his health care plan and stumping hard:

"Now is not the time to slow down" he said according to a recent Reuters article- referring of course to reforming the health care system, not to his apparent federal funds spending habit. His current health care reform plan carries a $1 trillion price tag, projected at around $239 billion in budget deficits over the next ten years. I assume that is in addition to the close to $2 trillion budget deficit the federal government is projecting.

“…We’ve got to get over the finish line, and part of this process is figuring out how to pay for it," said Obama.

Ok. So what’s the plan? The House Energy and Commerce Committee is insisting that any healthcare reform effort be paid for in full. Wow.

Of the five Congressional committees involved, three have agreed to a plan that would change the healthcare industry. Basically the reform plan would create a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies. Most importantly, it would bring insurance to the over 46 million people who do not currently have health insurance.

Obama said he is "absolutely convinced" it can happen this year. Like I said, Obama wants this to happen and he wants it to happen now. He wants it to be the good thing happening in the U.S. while the climate change debates are raging worldwide- he wants it to happen before the new Congressional elections in 2010- he wants it to happen while he is still really high in the approval ratings.

The money is going to be a big thing. Obama is starting out by saying we have to do whatever it takes to make this happen- and dozens in Congress, including many in his own party, are saying this just costs too much, Mr. President. And there is no guarantee that the reforms will control the rising costs anyway. Many Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats are saying we just don’t have the money, and the White House is saying, yeah, but we are going to save a lot of money doing this as well- let’s just do it and we’ll figure it out later. C’mon guys.

The bill will be in front of the House sometime in the next two weeks for a vote. The Senate vote is planned for early August.

This is going to be a tough sell, especially in a recession. While health care is going to be expensive either way, I’m sure this, like many/most other government programs will run over its estimated cost- so taking that into account, well, if it already costs too much we need to do something serious about it. And fast. 2 weeks?

We’ll see if the Obama administration can do some surgery on the bill to make it happen.