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Health Care Bulletin: The President Makes A Dubious Claim About His Campaign Promises (Slate.com)
In an interview with the Washington Post that hit the Internet Tuesday afternoon, President Obama sought to defend himself from the criticism he’s faced from the left over the way the healthcare reform debate has ended up. While doing so, though, he may have only succeeded in further alienating and angering liberals.
“Nowhere has there been a bigger gap between the perceptions of compromise and the realities of compromise than in the health-care bill,” Obama told the Post. “Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill.”
By itself, that’s basically true, though it’s not what many progressives want to hear right now. But Obama may have really stepped in it when he went to the real sticking point for a fair number of liberals right now, the lack of a public option in the Senate bill and the perception that the White House did little, if anything, to fight for it.
The idea has “become a source of ideological contention between the left,” Obama said, adding, “I didn’t campaign on the public option.”
The president’s claim that he “didn’t campaign on the public option” is at best on shaky ground, factually speaking. It’s unmistakably true that during the campaign his plan for reform included a public option.
A summary of Obama’s proposal — still up on BarackObama.com — says it “Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.” And a document his campaign put together, “Barack Obama’s Plan for a Healthy America,” says:
FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THE LINK FOR SLATE: War Room – Salon.com.
