Obama acknowledged to Diane Sawyer that "it was a mistake" to not open up important health care discussions to the public.
Again and again on the campaign trail, Obama had vowed that the health care bill would not be crafted behind closed doors.
CNN DEBATE
JANUARY 2008
"Not negotiating behind closed doors but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are, 'cause part of what we have to do is enlist the American people in this process."
You lie!
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
JANUARY 20, 2008
"I would put my plan forward and I would welcome input and say, 'Here are my goals: reduce costs, increase quality, coverage for everybody. If you have better ideas, please present them.' But these negotiations will be on C-SPAN. And so the public will be part of the conversation and will see the choices that are being made."
You lie!
GOOGLE Q AND A
NOVEMBER 14, 2008
"I respect what the Clintons tried to do in 1993 in moving health reform forward. But they made one really big mistake, and that is they took all their people and all their experts into a room and then they closed the door... We will work on this process publicly. It'll be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the Net."
You lie!
VIRGINIA TOWN HALL
AUGUST 21, 2008
"We'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is, who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies."
You lie!
OHIO TOWN HALL
MARCH 1, 2008
"But here's the thing: We're going to do all these negotiations on C-SPAN so the American people will be able to watch these negotiations."
You lie!
KEENE SENTINEL
NOVEMBER 27, 2007
"Drug and insurance companies will have a seat at the table. They just won't be able to buy every single chair. And we will have a public, uh, process for forming this plan. It will be televised on C-SPAN. I can't guarantee you it will be exciting so not everybody's going to be watching it. But it will be transparent and accountable to the American people.
"...And one of my jobs as the president will be to guide this process so that it's an honest process."
You lie!
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
MAY 2008
"To the drug and the insurance companies, who are still gonna have a lot of power, uh, in Washington and are still gonna try to block reforms that are taking place. So that's why I said, for example, that I want the negotiations to be taking place on C-SPAN."
You lie!
INDIANA TOWN HALL
APRIL 25, 2008
"So I'll put forward my plan, but what I'll say is, 'Look, if you've got better ideas, I'm happy to listen to them.' But all this will be done on C-SPAN in front of the public."
You lie!
While Obama now admits his actions didn't match his words regarding the C-SPAN cameras being present for meetings on health care, he still attempts to defend his record on transparency.
His admission is empty. He glosses over his glaring lies and Sawyer doesn't challenge him.
Transcript
DIANE SAWYER: Health care -- going forward, should all the conversations, all the meetings be on C-SPAN?
OBAMA: You know, I think your question points out to a legitimate mistake that I made during the course of the year, and that is that we had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after awhile, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right. But I had campaigned on process. Part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up transparency and I think it is -- I think the health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don't know what's going on. And it's an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals.
Now I think it's my responsibility and I'll be speaking to this at the State of the Union, to own up to the fact that the process didn't run the way I ideally would like it to and that we have to move forward in a way that recaptures that sense of opening things up more.
What a load of crap!
"[W]e had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances."
Decisions didn't have to be made quickly. They had to made properly and wisely.
Obama is talking about his party's political machinations, not doing what's right for the country.
It's disgraceful.
He gets no points for acting as if he's taking responsibility when he's really not.
Obama says "it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals," as if that's a false impression.
OF COURSE THERE HAVE BEEN A BUNCH OF BACK ROOM DEALS. WE KNOW THAT.
Obama continues the obfuscation.
SAWYER: A lot of people think you must say at the end of the day, this is not who I was in 2008, these deals with Nebraska, with Florida...
OBAMA: Let's hold on a second, Diane. I mean, I think that this gets into a big mush. So let's just clarify. I didn't make a bunch of deals. There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked. So that's point number one.
Number two is that I think it is important to know that the promises we made about increased transparency, we've executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I mean, this is the first White House in history where you know anybody who has walked into my office, anybody who has walked into the White House, you actually have a record of who comes in. We have put more stuff on the Internet than ever.
We've eliminated lobbyists from all the boards and commissions that historically, you know, they dominated in this town. So it's not that we haven't made significant progress, but we haven't changed it as much as we needed to.
Now, in terms of the health care bill, the product of making sure that we got historic insurance reforms that people have been fighting for years so that insurance companies can't take advantage of people, making sure that we're bending the cost curve, and -- and actually starting to reduce health care inflation in this country, which is a huge problem, making sure that 30 million people have access to health insurance, making sure that small businesses have tax credits -- it's important that people look at the core elements of what both the House and the Senate passed.
And every health economist out there, who's serious about this stuff, will tell you it's a vast improvement over the status quo. It doesn't -- that doesn't excuse the stray cats and dogs that found their way into legislation. It is point out that as we move forward, we've got to make sure that we're focused on what is actually helping the American people deal with what is a very serious problem.
Obama has not delivered on his promises.
On top of that, he isn't being honest about his record in his first year as president.
I don't know how he can say this: "[T]he promises we made about increased transparency, we've executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
That's a flat-out lie. He admitted as much when he claimed to accept responsibility for his "mistake" regarding openness and the construction process of the health care bill.
He says, "We have put more stuff on the Internet than ever."
That's not true. The White House website when President Bush was in office was updated in a dramatically more timely and complete fashion than it is now.
Transcripts, videos, and photographs were readily available and more easily accessible. This White House withholds information.
Some of the visitor records are posted. Wow. What transparency!
The White House website has turned into a campaign website, always in spin mode. Informing the public doesn't seem to be its purpose. It's heavy on propaganda.
When Obama speaks, he doesn't answer directly. He's worse than Bill Clinton when it comes to parsing words. He's at least Clinton's equal when it comes to lying.
Obama repeats that he didn't make a bunch of deals. That's BS.
This statement kills me: "And every health economist out there, who's serious about this stuff, will tell you it's a vast improvement over the status quo."
EVERY health economist?
Good grief. What a disgrace!
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