EconomistMom.com

We’re down to our last few days of “August recess” here in DC, even though it’s already September.  Congress and the Obama Administration come back to work next Tuesday.  We’ve just learned that the President will address the nation next Wednesday–not so much to talk about what he and Congress did during summer vacation, but more to try to undo the damage of what happened over summer vacation.  From an AP story by Charles Babington (emphasis added):

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will deliver a major prime-time health care address to Congress next week, opening an urgent autumn push to gain control of the debate that has been slipping from his grasp under withering Republican-led attacks.

Scheduling of the speech next Wednesday night, just a day after lawmakers return from their August recess, underscores the determination of the White House to confront critics of Obama’s overhaul proposals and to buck up supporters who have been thrown on the defensive. Allies have been urging the president to be more specific about his plans and to take a greater role in the debate, and aides have signaled he will do that in the address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber.

The speech’s timing also suggests that top Democrats have all but given up hope for a bipartisan breakthrough by Senate Finance Committee negotiators…

The president hopes to “take the reins of this debate and take it to the finish line,” said an administration official who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy. Obama hopes to put opponents in the position of having to propose their own plans or explain why they think it best to do nothing, the official said…

As Robert Samuelson complained a couple days ago, the debates over fiscal policy this summer have hardly been productive; it’s been “business as usual”:

What unites Democrats and Republicans is an unwillingness to have a serious debate about how big government should be. Spending is the crucial issue, because it determines taxes and deficits. If they become too large, the resulting depressed economy may make paying for government even harder. Ideally, liberals would see that spending needs to be cut substantially; if it isn’t, tomorrow’s tax increases or deficits will be horrendous. Ideally, conservatives would accept that taxes must ultimately rise; no plausible spending cuts can bridge the gap between government’s promises and its tax base.

There is no sign of this. Liberals and conservatives agree to evade. Spending for the elderly dominates the federal budget, but no one discusses who among retirees deserves government subsidies and at what age. Liberals would increase spending (a.k.a., President Obama’s health proposal) even before addressing existing deficits. President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans could have curbed spending. But they increased it even while cutting taxes, and Obama would keep most tax cuts except for people making over $250,000.

And today the Washington Post’s Dan Balz says he’s had enough of summer and the crazy town halls and talk of “death panels”–it’s time for the President to effectively “get a grip” now that vacation’s over (emphasis added):

Former Senate majority leader Bob Dole and former Democratic senator Bill Bradley weighed in with advice to the president over the weekend. Bradley said a grand bargain is still possible, but only if Obama is prepared to put tort reform on the table as an enticement to attract Republican support for universal coverage. Dole said Obama needs to take charge of the debate by laying out his real priorities, stated not in principles but in specifics.

From both veteran legislators, the message was clear: Obama must be prepared to wager more of his dwindling political capital, risk bucking some of the interests in his own party, challenge Republicans to be more than a party of “no” — and get the job done. Dole and Bradley were saying Obama must lead…

Summer vacation’s over.  It’s time to get back to work and push for real change, as difficult as it is to change the way policymaking gets done here in DC (it’s never pretty), and as hard as “change” in general is for people.  It’s going to take real courage on the President’s part, but on members of Congress, too, to be honest with the American people about their “real priorities” and the specific policies that would be consistent with those priorities.  I’ll have more to say about that “courage” tomorrow.