Gibbs insists Obama not backing off public option (Again)

[kpete]

Source: Associated Press


Gibbs insists Obama not backing off public option
AP


1 hr 13 mins ago

WASHINGTON – White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insists the Obama administration has not shifted its goals on health care reform or distanced itself from a government-run public insurance option.

He said in a meeting with reporters Tuesday morning that news stories suggesting that the administration was ready to abandon the public option as it battles to push health care reform through were overblown. The rash of reports began after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (seh-BEEL'-yuhs) appeared to signal the president was open to health care cooperatives as an alternative.

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



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090818/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_health_care_overhaul_4

[MNDemNY]

1. Yawn, it's as good as dead.

[damntexdem]

12. Fight for it.

What do we have to lose? Answer: the public option. So fight for it!

[MNDemNY]

13. I should not have to fight for it.

I have and will fight for single payer, I will, however, TOLERATE reform that includes a public option.

[Mermaid7]

20. Why shouldn't you have to fight for it?

If it's something you really want and if it's something worth fighting for, why would you say you shouldn't have to fight for it?

I mean you may have a point, that I'd like to hear (perhaps you feel that you voted for it), but my experience in life has always been, anything worth having it's worth the energy of fighting to get.

Little if anything ever gets handed to us on a silver platter.

[Mermaid7]

21. Okay, I've reconsidered and hear ya

At the beginning I too was willing to go for the Public Option as a compromise. Thinking if we could get this through, (like a Trojan Horse) that given the option, people would overwhelming go for it and eventually arrive at Single Payer.

Now that they have rejected our half way point, in order to reach across the aisle, with the 'Public Option' I too say, we did our best. We extended an olive branch, and they turn their arrogant heads away.

So screw em!

They don't have the majority!

Single Payer is now, the only way to fly!

Jerks.

[derby378]

2. Dupe?

:shrug:

[jody]

3. Only Obama's personal statement means anything. n/t

[Nite Owl]

4. "The President will veto any bill sent

to him that does not have a public option open to anyone who wants it."

That's what he needs to say. Until then all I can believe is that we are going to get shafted once again.

[pattmarty]

18. Yep. It's starting to look that way.

[creeksneakers2]

24. I'm looking for those words too

Their absence is telling.

[TankLV]

27. Just like we're STILL waiting for his APOLOGY for donnie mcglurking or whateverthefuck his name was.

and we're STILL waiting...

[The Wielding Truth]

5. I would hope that our President has a line that he will not cross .

[No Elephants]

8. I'm hoping Democrats in both Houses have a line that they will not cross, so ]

that a bill with an acceptable public option hits the Oval Office so that we never have to find out where Obama's line is on this.

I fear his line is: any bill that Congress passes, plus an immediate declaration of victory.

[Mermaid7]

23. Shove That Line Forward Now!

We tried negotiating to no avail.

.... ..!

Single Payer now is the bottom line.

Give em a run for their money.(literally)

[The Wielding Truth]

29. Yep, It's time for the grown-ups to take the lead. I'm sick of these nuts

being lead by lobbyists. Aren't you?

[DJ13]

6. That actual phrase Gibbs said was

"The President PREFERS a public option."

Thats not the strongest endorsement I've ever heard from a WH.

[No Elephants]

11. Underwhelming, to say the least. Some on the left

will abandon him because he is not acting blue. Independents will abandon him because he will appear totally ineffectual (as will many Democrats in Congress) if he cannot get his own Party behind him, when Democrats have a huge majority in the House and 60, count 'em, 60 Senators. Yeah, I know, some are Blue Dogs. But, if a sitting President, who heads the Party and controls the head of the DNC cannot get members of his own Party in line...

[donco6]

28. "I PREFER chocolate, - "

"but vanilla will do in a pinch."

Ugh. It's toast.

[No Elephants]

7. That's what happens when every major newspaper leads with "Obama's backing off the public option."

Or words to that effect.

Also for the first time, I am hearing from the talking heads that all Democrats are not thrilled with Obama. Up until now, all I've heard is how upset the right is, yet Democrats here have been complaining about one thing or another since he started making appointments. Of course, the only dissatisfaction the media or anyone gives a rat's tail about is dissatisfaction from the right.

It's frickin' amazing that Republicans control when they are in the majority AND when they are in the minority.

If the Democrats in Congress don't figure out a way to control with the Oval Office, an overwhelming majority in the House AND 60 Senators, maybe we need to dump the lot of them and elect smarter Democrats, even if we have to write them in.

Actually, I think the Democrats are plenty smart, just too damn terrified of losing even 1 damn indie vote. Meanwhile, they are about to lose their most loyal base to the Greens or Nader or some such.

[martymar64]

10. Don't lay all your belief in the media, they're working against us

The media has been fighting on the side of the insurance companies and the rethugs trying to block any reform, and especially the public option and single payer.
They are going to seize on every little scrap of rumor, conjecture, vague statements and outright bullshit they can to try to demoralize us and to get us to give up.

Like Flavor Flav said, don't believe the hype.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Bingo.

The media is stirring the pot to demoralize. Divide and conquer. They have to do this because the corporate shill repukes who own them have encouraged a type of behavior that has chased the moderate and liberal wings of their party away, and the base is now fighting among themselves... and they know that if the Dems ever got themselves together, they could steamroll over what's left of the GOP.

[MNDemNY]

14. Maybe Obama should not be backing off the public option. He is.

[tj2001]

9. Don't worry, we're not planning to invade Iraq

deja vu

[EFerrari]

16. Good. Most of his job is repetition. Keep it up, Robert!

[Metta]

17. Now that people are holding their feet to the fire. ... a stupid move to betray the p.o.

They'd lose a generation of voters from now until the sun sets.

[elocs]

19. It reminds me of baseball managers when the owner says they will NOT be fired,

you know you can stick a fork in them because they are done. I am not impressed by the White House's ability to control its message and to get all of their people on the same page.

[glinda]

22. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not.

[MasonJar]

25. The president will support the public option only if we, the progressives,

and the unions force him to. It may happen, but it will not be due to Obama. He is aa wishy washy as a wet towel, but if it happens let him take credit. I just want a strong public option to help all Americans have decent health care coverage. I prefer single payer, but do not support having any bill if it does not have a public option. The GOpers tried to railroad Bill Clinton on healthcare and failed but instead ruined his bill. But we are back. And would have been sooner if the 2000 and 2004 elections had not been stolen by one of the stupidest men living on the planet Earth. No bill is better than a crummy give the industry what it wants one.

[TankLV]

26. Gee - so Obama was LYING this past WEEKEND?!!!

Who to believe - what these LYING BASTARDS say or my LYING EARS?!!!

Sorry, but I have to go with my EARS and WHAT Obama SAID.

FUCK OBAMA!!!

He has finally LOST my support...