Obama to announce health-care strategy based on, um ... cost control

With Democratic Congressional leaders, particularly Speaker Nancy Pelosi, facing a steep challenge in mustering votes for the health care legislation, Mr. Obama’s remarks on its financial and fiscal implications could be crucial. In effect, officials indicate, he will contrast Democrats’ proposals for expanding coverage and for regulating insurance company practices with what he sees as the shortcomings of the Republicans’ incremental plans…

Republicans have capitalized on such skepticism and have had some success in defining the Democratic proposals by their immediate costs in new spending to expand coverage to the uninsured. By contrast, the administration and Congressional Democrats continue to struggle, despite support from nonpartisan analysts, to make the case that long-term costs would be lower under the overhaul they propose.

“Obviously we expect costs to come down because of a lot of the things we’ve done in the bill,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic leader. “But,” Mr. Hoyer acknowledged, “this is not the financing reform vehicle I think that it might have been.”