White House Pushes Back: We're Doing Better Than Clinton On Health Care

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed concerns on Monday that the Obama administration has allowed Congress to take the the lead in crafting new health care reform. Saying that the process is cyclical, Gibbs argued that President Barack Obama is in a much better position to achieve reform today than former President Bill Clinton was when he took up the cause.

"There has been a point [in] each of the five months where the pundits like to talk about how everything is off the rails and dead on arrival," Gibbs said. "I think the process that the president is moving forward with -- negotiations with all the stakeholders involved -- he is making progress to long-term reform."

Gibbs' comments come one day after former Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that the current White House had "over-learned" the lessons of the Clinton years. Hoping to avoid the secrecy that plagued the effort to reform health care 16 years ago, Obama had, Reich argued, granted too much authority to Congress.

"We have reached a tipping point," Reich declared on ABC's This Week. "And I think the problem is there are so many different bills and so many different conceptions of where the money is going to come from, whether there is going to be a mandate, whether there is going to be a public option, what the public option will look like, that there is no coherence. The president has got to go in there and give it coherence."

The Huffington Post asked Gibbs specifically about this comment during Monday's briefing, which came just hours after the Obama announced a deal to close the "donut hole" in prescription drug coverage. That move, which was endorsed by AARP, the largest health care organization representing people age 50 and over, is intended to it easier for millions of Medicare beneficiaries to pay for the medication.

After initially saying that he did not see the point in "getting involved in a debate about how we are pursuing what we are doing versus how it was pursued 16 years ago," Gibbs pushed back against Reich's analysis. The former labor secretary, Gibbs said, was "not necessarily working each and every day on what we are doing to move that reform forward."

"I don't want to get into a debate with Secretary Reich," Gibbs said, "but, again, I think the announcement today with AARP thinking this is a step toward meaningful reform and supporting that is a real difference compared to where we were 16 years ago."

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Comments

[RTSith1]

haha...this is HILARIOUS...so after 5 months in office, this dude is suppose to fix health care, fight 2 wars, fix the economy, bring peace to the middle east, shut North Korea up, and sell cars? IN 5 MONTHS? hahahahahahah! hahahahaahahah!!!! WOW! Somebody please tell me they didn't think it would take time..no YEARS to fix all these issues. I'm amazed that anybody would expect all these problems to be taken care of in 5 months. Bush and 8 years, and what did he do?.....

[benne]

NO HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO FIGHT TO WARS. HE TOLD US HE'D GET OUT OF IRAQ, AND WE SHOULD GET OUT OF AF-PAC RATHER THAN ESCALATE THE WAR.

[YewNeekId]

Clinton delivered nothing.

Thus far you have delivered nothing.


Doing better than Clinton??

[PaxEterna]

I'm not impressed. He is not FOR what the people WANT.

He has not seized the moment, but is still trying to "please" the Republicans.

It's disgusting, when you think what we voted for.

How is he doing better than Hillary? At least she came out swinging. She had the vision, which he is afraid to even entertain.

Where's the leadership we need on this issue? Not at the proverbial "table" that Mr. President declared a "gamechanger."

Nothing got changed. That was his verbal signal to the insurance lobby that all was well. He'll spin the outcome, and we will still suffer.

[mollyjackson]

Obama has three main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, & NATIONAL HEALTHCARE by the Federal government. He doesn't care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus. The cap and trade will add costs to everything and stifle growth. Paying for free college education is his goal. Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it free and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof. The only way to control costs is with massive rationing of services, like in Canada.

[hulagirrrl]

I worked for the campaign because I believe the YES WE CAN, still do. During his campaign speeches I was moved when I heard him tell his audience for the first time that he will work to get the same health care to the people that every Senator has.
Having lived and worked abroad in Europe and being very familiar with the "universal" health care system, this was always my most concern living here. I had so many co-worker that had to go into bankruptcy because of the cost of health care, I never understood how that could be in a country like this. I felt it was the most heartless system, and I believed what Obama said during the election, as I think many many people did. Hopefully he will keep that promise, America deserves it.

[lazercat2008]

Should have worked on Campaign Finance Reform first.

[sonoffestus]

Thank you , thank you , thank you!

[e4phil]

If democrats can't get this done then they are incompetent and should be voted out.. No excuse..

[Mark Twaine]

Democrats who vote against single payer healthcare should get a special tatto.

[Cameleon]

GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ Are you CRAAAAAAAAAAZY ARRP is the NEW CROOKS on the block.
Next they will be offering Stalag 17 Condos for seniors

[SCG]

They sold out.

[Cameleon]

There

[Cameleon]

Excuses, Excuses and more. Like a diver at the Olympicss walk to the end of the diving board and stand their until the event is over and never makes a Fing dive !

[ObamAtomic]

Better is not enough!
Single Payer!

[longtalldrink]

Correct!

[Citizen4Justice]

Its hard to get health care through when congress has become the ebay of legislation for the wealthly. They've made their bids and they are the winning bidder right now. The auction has just a few months to go. Soon they will get the package delivered, and we'll all be required to buy their insurance products under pain of government coercion. Hooray for American plutocracy!

[Mark Twaine]

Not this time my friend. Never again!

[mjeffn]

Single payer NOW!!!

[lady49]

Single payer means higher taxes....still want it?

[dispassionateobserver01]

It means cheaper healthcare.

As for taxes - whether they are higher or lower is simply impossible to determine. How do you determine the opportunity cost of being stuck in a bad job simply because it provides some healthcare? The majority of Personal bankruptcies in the US are caused by healthcare. How do you measure the income lost because of that - because of the psychological and human costs of going bankrupt, even if you go get over your bankruptcy inducing illness?

[smiththomas]

I hope they do better than Clinton on health care. However, if they go with the Kennedy Baucus plans they will tax people on their premiums. All people except the Unions. Have you heard about this?

[socalgal38]

I have heard about all the plans and all of them come out for the "for profit" insurance companies. The only one that doesn't is Sanders which is the only one that goes for single payer system.

[lysistrata]

I think we can trust Senator Sanders, any bill will have to have his seal of approval.

[SpecOpsGuy1963]

He's right. Instead of ridiculous failure it's just major failure. I will say though, Obama is also doing better than Chavez in destroying this country and turning it into the perfect model of socilsm.

[mjeffn]

Hurray up shoppers. Tin foil is half of in isle 7.

[sonoffestus]

Is it time to get out the the duck tape and plastic sheets?

[lysistrata]

Cheney/Bush did quite a job, not much left to destroy.

[sonoffestus]

I've been out of the country for a few years. When was Chavez president of the United States?