Opinion: What should President Obama tell Congress about healthcare reform?

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Even for someone as preternaturally calm as he is, President Obama has to be feeling a little tight around the collar about Wednesday’s speech to Congress. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The subject is his top legislative priority, a healthcare reform bill, whose momentum seems to have evaporated. The versions approved by four House and Senate committees have been effectively tarred by critics on the right as too expensive, intrusive and risky. Their backers on the left, meanwhile, seemed so deeply invested in one controversial feature -- giving uninsured Americans the choice of a Medicare-like public insurance option -- that any concession to Republicans on that point could drive them off. Hoping to recapture the high ground, the president reportedly plans to renew his case against the status quo and lay out a more specific set of proposals. But what should those be? Take the poll, and offer your own healthcare reform plan in the comments below!

-- Jon Healey