U.S. Editorial Pages Challenge Obama's Fiscal Details on Health Care

"The hard part, in terms of both policy and politics, is finding a way to pay for the expansion in coverage," the editors of the Los Angeles Times wrote Thursday, reviewing President Obama's major address on health care Wednesday night. "On that most contentious issue, unfortunately, Obama argued that Congress could cover most of the cost by attacking waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid -- a pain-free path that's as unrealistic as it is alluring."

The president's speech received high marks all around for its rhetorical flourishes, particularly the reading of a personal letter Senator Ted Kennedy wrote before his death. But while most of the nation's major editorial pages support health care reform, an equal number of them complained Thursday that the president still did nothing to explain how the country will pay for his program.

"As for Mr. Obama's policy details, he offered little else that was new," the Wall Street Journal wrote. "Instead of trillions of dollars, he put his price tag at a less politically toxic $900 billion. But that is only within the first 10-year budget window and assumes 'savings' that are surely illusory."

Several newspapers pounced on the president's plans to save money -- taxing insurance companies that offer "gold-plated" plans and cutting waste -- as unlikely to ever materialize. "This is an ungainly and inefficient, but politically safe, way to approach the goal of limiting the amount of health benefits that can be offered tax-free," the Washington Post wrote of Obama's plan to pay for reform with an "amalgam" of savings from other programs it would render unnecessary. "It is essential, in the coming weeks, that the president hew to his promise that whatever plan emerges won't make the country's dire fiscal situation even worse."

The New York Times complained in the opposite direction, arguing that Obama's $900 billion figure is probably not enough to cover every American, and that Congress should demand even more be spent. Most of the Times' criticism focused on Obama's "passive" leadership and demanded that he begin "twisting arms" to get things done.

But the Los Angeles Times closed its analysis with an ultimatum that was echoed across the nation's editorial pages: "Obama will have to come up with a more complete approach to paying for reform as the legislation moves forward. He claimed the plan as his own with this speech, but he left some of the hardest questions unanswered."