FACT CHECK: White House Ignores Concession

[The Prof]

1. The dizzily spinning White House now claims that backing down from the public option is not a retreat, it's where they've been all along

2. LOL! Who would ever believe any White House would put reporters in the position of having to go back thru a president's THOUSANDS of public utterances searching painstakingly for confirmation of something Obama has said as OFTEN and as CLEARLY as his commitment to a public option

3. Yet that's exactly what's going on here

4. Dang, so much WORK

5. Five minutes later, it must be time for LUNCH

6. If Sebelius' 180 Sunday was a reversal, Gibbs said THIS MORNING, it's a "whistle we started blowing WEEKS AGO"

7. Even the press corps, once so thrilled, won't buy it for a single second

8. It's true that Gatekeeper Baucus has been blowing that horn, Mr Conrad, Mr Durbin, Mr Clinton, Mr Daschle, Ms McCaskill, Mr Ross, Mr Bill Richardson, Mr Elmendorf of the CBO and literally 100 other democrats

9. But Obama---NEVER!

10. Tuff times to be a supporter these days, so hard to know which way the CIRCLE is spinning

FACT CHECK: White House ignores health concession - Yahoo! Finance

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has indicated a willingness to drop a government-run health care plan from any overhaul. The White House says that's not a shift. Actually, it is.

Fierce proponents of a government-run health plan for months, Obama and senior administration officials, bowing to pressure from Republicans and skeptical voters, suggested that such a public option is not do-or-die.

"All I'm saying is, though, that the public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform," the president told a town hall-style audience in Grand Junction, Colo., on Saturday. "This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it."

CLAIM: "I challenge you guys all to go back and see what we've said about this over the course of many, many, many, many months, and you'll find a boring consistency to our rhetoric," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

THE FACTS: During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama said a new public plan should offer comprehensive insurance similar to that available to federal employees.

In the first half of the year, Obama said repeatedly in speeches, weekly radio and Internet addresses and town halls that he wants a health care overhaul that has a taxpayer-funded public health insurance option. He has said the plan would compete with private insurance to keep costs down.

"That's why any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans -- including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest -- and choose what's best for your family," he said on July 18.

And in a June 3 letter to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Obama said: "I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive and keep insurance companies honest."

When Obama hedged this weekend in Colorado -- and other administration officials followed suit -- liberals cried foul and the White House insisted that the rhetoric hadn't shifted.

"Must include" became "whether we have it or don't have it."

Gibbs repeated the claim, however, in a meeting with reporters Tuesday morning, saying news stories suggesting the administration was ready to abandon the public option were overblown.

Gibbs said there was no intention to indicate a change in policy. "If it was a signal, it was a dog whistle we started blowing weeks ago."

The Prof

 

[Harshaw]

1. The dizzily spinning White House now claims that backing down from the public option is not a retreat, it's where they've been all along

Well, SURE. We've always been at war with Eurasia.