Yesterday President Obama announced his own health care plan for the first time. The $950 billion plan lays the groundwork for his televised summit with Congressional Republicans and Democrats this Thursday, and we'll write more about it throughout the week.
However, the focus for today is about White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been a source of extreme views from many of Obama's more liberal supporters since he was named to his post shortly after Obama beat John McCain nearly a year and a half ago.
Regarding the just announced health care plan, The Wall Street Journal reports that Emanuel had been arguing that Obama should produce a "skinny bill", in reaction to Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race last month. Brown won in part by campaigning against the health care bill that passed the Senate on Christmas eve.
But the President rejected Rahm's advice. A source told the Journal that "Rahm strongly believes that incremental reform is all that can (and should) be done."
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2010.