One of our homeboy members of Congress, Adam Smith, called us from the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday morning to explain his uneasiness rushing health care reform (an uneasiness we share: see our editorial tomorrow).

"This bill is 1,000 pages long," he said. "I just want to make sure we take time to understand it before we move forward on it.”

Smith is right in identifying cost controls as the key to everything else.

“You will not be able in any sustained way to increase access if you do not control costs. There's not enough emphasis on cost control at this point.”

He argues that Medicare and other insurance plans have to move away from the traditional fee-for-service payment system, which rewards quantity of treatments as opposed to quality of outcomes.

Smith isn’t opposed to the controversial proposal for a so-called public option for health insurance, but he said if it were modeled on Medicare, it would "merely expand the inefficiencies of the current system."

The fact is, the expense of American medical care has already broken the bank. The country has to get a lid on it. If that doesn't happen in the current reforms – assuming they materialize – whatever comes out of Congress will be unaffordable.

The White House "Suds Summit" is over, and the speculation is rampant over its deeper meaning, if any.

Among beer fans, however, the discussion is over the participants' drinks of choice – and what they would have chosen if given the chance.

NPR consulted Atlanta beer expert Matt Simpson on the subject. Here's his perspective.

Bud Light (President Obama's choice): "Bud Light is considered a 'lawn mower' beer, perfect for after mowing the lawn or when you get home from work. It's one step up from a nice, tall glass of ice water . . . "

Red Stripe (Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s choice) from Jamaica: It "is also a pale lager, but it's an official handmade product, with a little more flavor and flair."

Blue Moon (Sgt. James Crowley's choice): It "is also mass-produced, but it's an ale. It's a more flavorful beverage, with some floral character and hints of coriander and orange peel. None of these are microbrews or craft beers, but the closest is Blue Moon, a tasty beer that's a macrobrewer's attempt to join the craft beer market." (I noticed in one of the photos that Crowley had a slice of either orange or lemon in his Blue Moon. Beer fans are hotly divided on the issue of putting fruit in their beer.)

What about Vice President Joe Biden's choice: Buckler's, a non-alcoholic beer? Either he's a teetotaler, and there's nothing wrong with that, or he went the no-alcohol route to decrease the chance of saying something goofy.

Wonder if it worked.

Click here to read the NPR story.

UPDATE: Now the AP is reporting that Gates had a Sam Adams Light, not a Red Stripe. And for snacks, they munched peanuts and pretzels out of small silver bowls.

What we're working on for tomorrow:

Congress should not be trying to rush health care reform through this summer. As Rep. Adam Smith told us yesterday, a plan that would fall apart before passage upon too much scrutiny could be junked in a hurry after passage because of public backlash. That’s happened before: in Washington state in 1994 and with the Medicare catastrophic plan in 1988.