The president’s plan to overhaul America’s health system hits turbulence in Congress

“IT’S a lot easier to be Santa than Scrooge,” harrumphs Jim Cooper. The congressman from Tennessee is complaining about the health-reform plan unveiled in July by the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives. He thinks it is a populist initiative that will end up fuelling rather than curbing America’s runaway health inflation. Such tough talk would not be in the least surprising coming from the opposition party; but Mr Cooper is a Democrat. And he insists that reform efforts have gone so badly wrong that it is time to “go back to the drawing board”.

Health reform is the domestic priority for Barack Obama, who has been pushing both houses of Congress to come up with final health bills before the August recess. On current plans, the House of Representatives is supposed to wind up its session on July 31st, while the Senate is scheduled to stay at work one more week. …