Healthcare week!

Big week for Healthcare. Obama has his big speech tomorrow night in front of Congress, and he looks like he may come out guns blazing after giving a preview of his speech at a AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic on Monday. All the columnists are out in full-force giving assessments and opinions, so let's get started.

Bill Moyers wrote the President an open letter encouraging him to fight.

Joan Walsh has been very encouraged by Obama's Monday speech.

There's another piece in Salon looking at current health care costs and why we Americans get so little for such a high price.

The last post really got me thinking. If you are a conservative Republican, shouldn't you be supporting cost controls for health care? You cannot argue with the fact that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are going to bankrupt this great nation of ours in my lifetime unless changes are made, and yet we aren't seeing any big ideas coming from the Republican side of the aisle in Congress. Aren't Republicans supposed to support competition? I agree that the Democrats have been really bad about getting behind a plan and showing solidarity, but all Republicans have done is spread fear, misinformation, and refusal to participate in any meaningful change. How does that help? Doing this for short-term gains and hurting Obama is really, really dumb. Now, I would argue that simply adding the 45 million people to the current health care system without any other changes is also really, really dumb. I do see some middle ground in there though. I've talked about different ways to have middle ground several times on this blog.

Ezra Klein has a post about how the public option does not mean cost control, and I have to agree with him. He also takes a look at Max Baucus' new health care bill. He also says that the problem with getting health care reform passed doesn't have as much to do with Obama as it does Congress, who actually writes and passes legislation.

David Frum says that regardless of what kind of speech Obama gives, he must face up to the reality that he has helped create.

Al Franken talks down an angry healthcare group who crashed his tent at a Minnesota fairground.

For those who still think our current system is just fine the way it is, see today's front page of USA Today, Bill Moyer's presentation of Critical Condition, the documentary by Roger Weisberg that takes an unflinching look at healthcare in America. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has his new piece that looks at health care.