In his radio address this Saturday, President Obama praised the Baucus bill and used some of his most combative language to date against the insurance industry.

“The insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest – to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo,” he said. “They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people.”

But if he was going to take the insurance industry on so aggressively, why didn’t he use his rhetorical skills for a much better bill, like Medicare for All, or Medicare for All Who Want It?

Instead, it appears that he’s behind the Baucus bill, a bill that ironically will corral tens of millions of people into the pens of the private insurance industry. For all its belly-aching, the insurance industry will make more profits than ever before. And we’ll still have 25 million uninsured people in this country a decade from now.

Obama also oddly undersold the moral case for health care reform.

“Passing health insurance reform”—note that he no longer even calls it health care reform—“will make a profound and positive difference in the lives of the American people,” he said. But he didn’t put any flesh on this. He didn’t spell out the “profound and positive difference” in human terms.

Instead, he skipped quickly to something airier and less immediate. “It also now represents something more: whether or not we as a nation are capable of tackling our toughest challenges.”

But the issue of universal health care is so urgent, so personal, and so gut-wrenching for so many millions of Americans that Obama doesn’t need to reach for “something more.”

On this issue, guaranteeing every American affordable, comprehensive health care would be enough.

But alas, Obama is not offering that.