Was Obama right to say, "I have not said I am a single payer supporter"?

[Karmadillo]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/08/11/dueling_quotes.html

"I have not said I am a single payer supporter." -- Barack Obama, speaking in New Hampshire yesterday.

"I am a proponent of a single-payer universal healthcare program" -- Barack Obama, speaking to the AFL-CIO in 2003.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I'm not going to make judgments on "right" or "wrong,"

but it does seem that he has changed his position if he believes what he said at the town hall, and I'm disappointed if that's the case.

[Lorien]

2. That needs to make it to Jon Stewart. nt

[billyoc]

3. Only if he added "...today".

[Schema Thing]

4. To reach back that far is immaterial, imo

In the current discussion, he's been clear that he doesn't think single-payer is the way to go, and why he thinks that.

I've even heard him say, sometime in the recent past, something to the effect of "I've said in the past that, if we were starting from scratch, single payer would be the way to go, but...."

[bertman]

6. Yes, looking forward, not back. What relevance could statements made in the past possibly have?

[Schema Thing]

16. I don't know if you are being serious, or snarky

lol, your statement can be read either way.

but to anyone reading, my point was about going so far back that it wouldn't be at all unusual for someone just to have changed their position or decided that their preferred method is not doable. (which is exactly what I've heard Obama say).



And since he's been running for president, Obama has been consistent that he doesn't think single-payer is the way to go.

[bertman]

31. Actually, Schema, I was being snarky. The evolution from '03 (single payer is the way

to go) to '06 (I will work for universal health care for everyone in America by the end of my first term) to '09 (we will cover 95% of Americans in this new health care plan) is just more of the Obama evolution that I am disliking more and more with every issue.

[dflprincess]

8. He wouldn't be "starting from scratch" if he built on Medicare

and then he'd actually be working to get people access to health care. The goofy "insurance exchange" is closer to starting from scratch and doesn't do a thing to guarantee access. His determination to protect pharma and the insurance companies at our expense is very disappointing.

The lies the nuts on the right are telling a awful, but I'm getting fed up with the lies the Democrats are telling about how the half assed ideas they are coming up with are going to do anything but keep private profits and their campaign treasuries healthy.

[jbnow]

13. Is his determination to protect the companies or to get passed

what can be.

Look how many Dems are opposed to a public option. How many do you think would resist single payer?
It MIGHT be possible if the Senate had different rules and it was simple majority rule but even that is shaky. The anti-reform ads would be out full blast, public resistance all the stronger. Obama couldn't do it by decree even if he wanted to

The goofy "insurance exchange" provides a lot of protection. Really. To get on it the private plans have to meet all the essential requirements and that includes so many things that will protect people. Things like dropping pre-existing condition requirement or charging more for those who have them, dropping annual or lifetime limit on coverage, limiting patients out of pocket expense to a set limit (even if the person has a catastrophic illness), free well baby care, no co-pay for many types of preventative care...and so on.

It is so far from perfect but so much better than no change at all.

Now if you woke up Obama and knew you couldn't get through the ideal system what would you do? Would you prefer one where at least insurance on this exchange will be safe and you can subsidize so many people...or not having one at all.

Despite this quote I've never heard or read of him saying anything but that we can only move towards this in incremental steps and I have found that from well before this quote.

Maybe he cares a heck of a lot more about protecting their profits than he does the good of the country or maybe he is a pragmatist to the nth degree.

[dflprincess]

17. The plans that are floating around will do nothing but further entrench these crooks

Obama admits these companies are dishonest yet he insists they continue to control our access to health care (as does Pelosi who has called them "immoral") and he's decided he now supports that we be required to contribute to these companies. Change CEOs can believe in.

Right now we'd be better off to do nothing and let the existing system collapse, then there will be no choice but to extend Medicare to all of us.

He had the political capital to lead the charge for real reform and so far he has chosen not to so. "Pragmatic" is just another term for "protecting the status quo".

[closeupready]

5. He also forcefully criticized his primary opponents' aim to garnish wages if people decline to pay

for health insurance, and indicated he would not be in favor of that. Now, turns out, mandating that people pay for health insurance is something he appears to be getting behind.

He's changed a LOT of what he claimed he believed in during the primary and general.

[dflprincess]

18. The further he moves up the food chain

the more corporate friendly he becomes.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Isn't that the truth!

x(

[Justitia]

7. Nice try, but still a non-gotcha. Read all his remarks in their totality.

What bullshit.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Change which is subject to change without notice.

[jbnow]

10. I looked for more of that speech or the transcript

the clip of it cuts off at a point that clearly wouldn't be the end of what he was saying about health care. I couldn't find a fuller version than the paragraph widely shown that this quote is from.
It cuts off right where he would usually start talking about why we have to begin reform in another way, including current insurance plans people want to hold on to.
Until I hear what he said next I am very doubtful he didn't offer his usual "howevers"

I found interviews before and after that talk where he says he would be in favor of it if we had a fresh start but we have a pretty firmly entrenched system in place where many people really liked what they had. That we'd need Democrats in power but even if Dems were in if the public was strongly against it we couldn't suddenly switch to a new system. He would say that to start reform it would need to be inclusive of the system we already had.

I never saw one other time that he said he was a single payer supporter and left it at that. Every other time it was him preferring single payer in principle but how you have to go for what is feasible. He may show his idealism but even more he shows his pragmatism, like it or not.

That clip came out during primary to show he was a liar. Many out of context clips can twist truth. I worked hard to find the words he said next because his speech obviously wasn't over. If someone has that please let me know. The last words on the available part were about needing Democrats in power.

[NYC_SKP]

11. In defense of what he has said at various times:

I think he'd like to see universal single-payer care someday, this is his ideal.

I think he knows that any immediate change would be too disruptive to the economy and the various systems and peoples lives (he said as much yesterday).

I didn't hear him say, "I have not said I am a single payer supporter.", but I think he's referring to current proposals that would be exclusively single-payer.

Thus, it seems clear, for current legislative plans he supports a public option.

:patriot:

[Curtland1015]

12. Six years is an aweful long time. Isn't it possible that in that amount of time...

...he looked more into the problem and, based on the facts and news he read, changed his opinion?

I can't say MY opinion on things hasn't changed in six years.

[flyarm]

14. and about that AARP statement Tuesday..think again,,,,,,,,

Back to Article

AARP tells Obama: No health plan endorsement yet
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

(08-11) 15:32 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

A group usually seen as one of Barack Obama's allies in the health care debate — AARP — says the president went too far Tuesday when he said the seniors lobby had endorsed the legislation pending in Congress.

AARP is sensitive to the issue because polls show that Medicare beneficiaries are worried their health care program will be cut to subsidize coverage for the uninsured.

At the town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., Obama said, "We have the AARP onboard because they know this is a good deal for our seniors." He added, "AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare."

But Tom Nelson, AARP's chief operating officer, said, "Indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate."

Like Obama, AARP wants action this year to cover the uninsured and restrain health care costs, but the organization has refrained from endorsing legislation. Nelson said AARP would not endorse a bill that reduces Medicare benefits.

A spokesman said the Medicare cuts that have been proposed so far would not affect benefits.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/11/national/w153237D40.DTL

[amborin]

15. not sure

if he's backing away from it permanently or just until this
chaos subsides

[mkultra]

19. I think that keeping in context of his presidency is appropriate

I dont care to play right wing partisanship with everything he has ever said.

[scheming daemons]

20. So..if somebody is for something in 2003..but against it in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009..

...how would YOU charactarize their position?



You're engaging is misleading propaganda in this OP.

[DevonRex]

21. +1. Par for the course, unfortunately.

[closeupready]

23. Position on access to health care is not like a position on jaywalking.

This is a life/death issue to millions of people. To sell your candidacy, as he did, on a position that stood a chance of bringing health and life to many who would not otherwise get it or keep it, and to later change to a position that is more likely to reinforce the existing system than to change it - that is definitely worth noting.

[scheming daemons]

24. You're lying again. He did not "sell his candidacy" on single-payer... in fact, the opposite

During the whole campaign, he argued that he was NOT for single-payer.


You are simply lying when you say he sold his candidacy on it.

[closeupready]

25. He said one thing during the campaign, and he has stopped supporting that now.

We know that is a fact.

[scheming daemons]

26. He did *NOT* say he was for single-payer during the campaign. Simply not true

Stop spreading falsehoods.

[closeupready]

27. You are living in fantasyland if you think he hasn't tightened up his plan.

He has. Face facts.

[closeupready]

28. He was opposed to mandating the purchase health insurance, now it's part of his plan.

That is a fact.

[TheKentuckian]

29. I'm seeing the changing goalpost game here.

There is no argument to made that Obama ran on Single Payer. It is a Republican level lie.

[steelmania75]

30. sigh, we didn't vote for centrist policies this election, the people wanted dramatic change

And the blue dogs, and some incompetent Dems are blocking our path.

[Iggo]

32. Is it the truth?