POTUS: Public option 'symbolic'

[kpete]

Source: Politico

Obama watched the vote
POTUS: Public option 'symbolic'
By CAROL E. LEE | 12/21/09 5:13 PM


President Obama told American Urban Radio Networks's April Ryan Monday that he stayed up to watch the Senate's early-morning vote on a health care bill and said he's confident Congress can work out the "five percent" difference between the House and Senate bills.

...............

The president sought to downplay the lack of a public health insurance option in the Senate bill, saying: "There is so much good in this bill, and I'm now confident that it’s going to pass."

"I think people need to understand just how significant this is," Obama told Ryan.

The public option, he said, "is an area that has just become symbolic of a lot of ideological fights." But, Obama added: "As a practical matter, this is not the most important aspect of this bill — the House bill or the Senate bill."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/1209/obama_watched_the_vote_3dac2d12-13ff-416b-9394-16cf24e21c02.html

[Larkspur]

1. Obama's "Change we can believe in" theme is an empty one

[Beavker]

13. I don't even check Politico or ready anything that comes from there anymore.

[Prism]

2. I think the President should stop trolling his base

Seriously. I'm not sure when it happened, but the President has officially become kind of an asshole.

Oh, and a massive, massive liar. Was there anything about health-care in his campaign that has proven true at this point? It seems all the big ticket items have either been dropped or flat-out reversed from his stated positions.

Eh, as a gay man, I'm kind of used to the President being just a complete dick about things he should have far more compassion towards. But it's still a little startling to see him take that tack on something as big as HCR.

This is getting to be like a bad Hillary Duff film. The nerdy outsider gets a makeover to become the most popular kid in school, lets it go to his head, loses all moral grounding, and then becomes a kind of egotistical monster.

I'm seeing that here, sad to say.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Bethesda Naval gives the president and his family only 'symbolic' care? Who knew?

[wackywaggin]

15. Right on!!

[mac56]

4. Wildly misleading headline.

He DIDN'T say that the PO was "symbolic," as in "a symbolic gesture." He DID however say that the PO "has... become symbolic of a lot of ideological fights."

Spin much, Politico? Exactly what I've come to expect from them.

[kpete]

7. i agree

politico=spin
and it is up to us to decipher, kp

[high density]

11. exactly

He made the same exact point in his speech months ago, that the PO was being blown out of proportion by both sides.

I do wonder at this point where the serious cost controls are. Ezra Klein is hopeful that congress will act now that they will own the cost issue with mandates, but I don't see them giving a crap any more than they do today.

[ronnie624]

14. It seems to me he is saying,

that a public option would not have added anything of significance to the bill, as it is really "just" a symbol of opposition between ideologies. It's a ridiculous statement.

[Unvanguard]

5. That's the simple truth. If anyone on the left or the right doesn't want to hear it

that's their own problem.

[AndyA]

6. Seems some are still more concerned with "making history" than doing things that truly help people.

Making history isn't something you can take to the bank.

Having meaningful health care reform that saves lives is.

I guess we'll have to see what the final version looks like, as of now we don't really know, but I'm tired of the meme on significance and making history. Looks great on paper in the books, but doesn't really have the impact on people that it could have.

A missed opportunity. We can only hope the merged bill takes the best of both the House and Senate bills to really give something to the people, instead of the gift it appears to be to the insurance companies, who really don't need any help or protection.

[mbperrin]

8. K&R for discussion value.

I see the unrec folks have been at work.

[MineralMan]

9. Right wing spin. President Obama said no such thing.

Another Freeper talking point...can we not stop posting freeper talking points, please?

There are issues. Let's discuss them.

[NJmaverick]

10. He's right

[SlavesandBulldozers]

17. sure, when you define right as "not wrong".

Its impossible to be wrong when you took no stand.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

The jury's still out on whether or not Obama was ever "good".

[Jefferson23]

12. This is not an ideological fight.

This is about the insurance lobby owning our political system, and how far reaching it is, and how little political capital Obama was willing to spend. WHERE was Obama months ago, not fighting, as he should have been on the single most important domestic issue facing this country.

I am so tired of listening to this fucking spin bullshit.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

16. that's the miracle of Obama's oratory.

You can read into it whatever you want to. For some his sentence can mean PO was a meaningless symbol he didn't find all that necessary, for others it was a meaningful symbol that just couldn't get through due to obstructionists. Its a cipher. Interestingly he says ""As a practical matter, this is not the most important aspect of this bill — the House bill or the Senate bill." Well, actually its not a part of either bill, but what else could he say? That it was important?

That would require taking a fucking stand on something.

"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything." - Alexander Hamilton
"Justice delayed is justice denied"." - MLK