Obama 'Absolutely' Will Help Merge Health Care Bills (VIDEO)

While many Americans are wrapping gifts, President Barack Obama is pledging to personally wrap up health-care reform.

Obama told PBS's Jim Lehrer that he would 'absolutely' take a hands-on role in merging it with the House version. The Senate passed its version of the health care bill Thursday morning.

"We hope to have a whole bunch of folks over here in the West Wing, and I'll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets into session," he said.

This comes after the president has taken some criticism for being too passive and allowing too many aspects of health care reform to be compromised. He responded to those charges in an interview with the Washington Post:

Throughout the health-care debate, the president has declined to weigh in with specific preferences. The tactic has exasperated his supporters, but his advisers have deemed it key in keeping the bill moving through a balky Congress. Obama called the public option his preferred choice to ensure broad coverage and provide cost-cutting competition to the private insurers. But he has never demanded that it be part of a final bill.

"We don't feel that the core elements to help the American people have been compromised in any significant way," Obama said. "Do these pieces of legislation have exactly everything I want? Of course not. But they have the things that are necessary to reduce costs for businesses, families and the government."

Speaking about his decision to finally roll-up his sleeves, Obama told Lehrer:

Right now there are families who don't have health insurance and, as a consequence of somebody getting sick in their family, have been bankrupt. Right now there are small businesses who've been doing the right thing by their employees and just got a notice from their insurance companies that their premiums went up 25, 30, 40 percent; and that business owner's having to make a decision, do I start dropping coverage for my employees or do I have to lay off one employee to keep coverage for everybody else?

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Comments

[IDIOTA]

11:19 AM on 12/26/2009

Boo! End the ObamaRahma -- Howard Dean in 2012.

[IDIOTA]

08:36 PM on 12/25/2009

I think that President, in that NewsHour clip, made the case against the bill.

[Truthb4u]

07:30 AM on 12/25/2009

This bill will cover 30 millions more people. It does has some regulation and restriction for insurance companies. I hope this bill passed and the re-visited and made better.

How cold is your heart that you will deny 30 millions people insurance.

[Dale Larson]

11:52 AM on 12/25/2009

"How cold is your heart that you will deny 30 millions people insurance."

How cold is the congress' heart that those elements don't take effect for years? It's false choice you are trying to project and you're using fear and guilt to nail it home.

This bill achieves the 30 Million by employing a mandate that makes people criminals if they don't pay money for an inferior for-profit product. Unless there is a guaranteed public run insurance choice the mandate will die in the courts and there goes those 30 million.

We don't need a "Public Option" to

"*keep* the insurance companies honest." -- Obama.

The insurance industry is already dishonest.

Wall street run health care must end.

[onedivasinger]

01:28 PM on 12/25/2009

Fact check: There are pieces of the legislation which kick in right away that will greatly benefit people. Just the facts.

[Anym]

11:56 PM on 12/24/2009

Obama 'Absolutely' Will Help Merge Health Care Bills...................... to make it worse.

Seriously everything Obama has done in this fight for Health Care Reform so far is bad.
HE has done as much good for reform as Joe Liebermann has for ending the Iraq war.

From supporting the unconstitutional mandate, to sandbagging to public option, to making s.l.e.a.z.y. back room deals with Pharma and the Health Insurance companies to make sure both the corporations, lobbyist, and the DNC keep rolling in cash.

He's fought against drug reimportation and for capitulating to Joe Liebermann.
This is less good news for Health Care Reform as it is good news for bailout seekers.

[Brett1981]

11:46 PM on 12/24/2009

Why did Obama have to lie and say he didn't campaign on the Public Option? Why didn't come out and say what all of his sleeping walking herd are saying - that its Lieberman's fault, it's the Blue Dog's fault, etc.?

Why doesn't Obama pledge to keep fighting for a public option, instead of calling it "idealogical" and "not essential."?

Because if he does, his deals with big insurance are done and the campaign funding dries up.

[Marcospinelli]

06:39 AM on 12/25/2009

On yesterday's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Lawrence O'Donnell took on Obama's claims that he never campaigned for the public option and showed clips throughout his campaign where he did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96U-7lILbXc

[WoodyCPM]

11:32 PM on 12/24/2009

Of course he's getting involved now. He has to make sure the deal that he an Rahm struck with the Insurance Industry and Big Pharma is not upended here at the last minute.

[lobear00]

10:31 PM on 12/24/2009

I am thinking about the hardships facing a whole lot of american citizens versus the snakes on wall street, the snakes running the insurance industries the Millions upon Millions these snakes have been stealing from the american people for so long.
Then thinking about the american people having to bailout these same snakes with the blessings of the group in the white house, the members of congress then once again giving the american people the short end of the stick.

People on wall street and those in the insurance industry should be sitting behind bars or thrown out of this country and everything they own seized. That is the price these snakes should be paying.

[eweqo]

11:32 PM on 12/24/2009

and just like the French Revolution of 1789, there are always more snakes.

[carolr51]

12:57 PM on 12/25/2009

Incredibly, it appears that no one is going to pay for their crimes, no one in the Bush Administration, none of the torturers, the banks, Wall Street, the credit card companies, big Pharma and the health insurance companies. (have I missed anyone?) They have all been protected by the current administration, and to me that is inexcusable. And then to make John Dean the bad guy instead of Lieberman, Nelson and crew. It just really undermines my belief in what this President is going to do for us.

[carolr51]

01:00 PM on 12/25/2009

I meant Howard Dean :)

[bungle]

10:24 PM on 12/24/2009

who the f does he think hes talking to ...

[RightWingBeagle]

09:49 PM on 12/24/2009

Good evening mutts. I hope you are having as wonderful a Christmas Eve as I am. Went to mass, then dinner and then I gave my father the first gift of Christmas, his own personal Chia Obama. What a hit. He loves it.

So what are my liberal friends whining about this evening?

[Brett1981]

09:52 PM on 12/24/2009

We were just laughing about how conservatives thought Bush was fiscally responsible and for small government.

[RightWingBeagle]

09:59 PM on 12/24/2009

Fiscal responsibility and small government? Everything is relative. He is a penny pincher compared to Obama. Quadrupled the national debt in 10 months. Now that's a record.

[cliffhammond]

10:00 PM on 12/24/2009

Can you believe Sean Hannity argued just that to Jesse Ventura the other night on Faux? I thought Jesse was going to fall out of his chair laughing.

[Libby48]

10:11 PM on 12/24/2009

Merry Christmas RWB....you are the man!!!
I actually went to Mass twice today....I love both priests!!!
Cha Cha Chia!! LMAO!

[Marcospinelli]

09:49 PM on 12/24/2009

I don't suggest running a third party. I suggest that Democratic and Independent voters who voted for Obama and Democrats can't just vote anymore. They have to get involved in politics directly, in the Democratic Party both locally and nationally, in the internal workings of the party and throw the DLC out.

That's what voters thought they were doing in 2008. They didn't know they were voting in a changeling, a Trojan horse, a turncoat, a DINO. During the campaign, after Obama's FISA vote, all you heard from the 'bots was "He's really a liberal, but he can't show his hand because then he wouldn't get the votes of the Independents that he needs to win in the general election." Ask most Obama voters, he//, listen to the cable news shows for any 24 hour cycle and all you'll hear is how progressive and liberal he is.

The disinformation campaign to shove a DINO onto Americans worked, and Americans are slowly realizing how they've been duped.

If you don't want to see the Republican Party in power again, it's up to you to hold Obama and the DLC-controlled Democratic Party accountable. To MAKE THEM DO what they were elected to do.

But I wouldn't hold my breath - To hear Obama say as he did to the Washington Post that he "didn't campaign on a public option" now is breathtaking. The man is tone deaf and not an honest merchant.

[anothervoice2]

11:20 PM on 12/24/2009

Well said!

[WoodyCPM]

11:48 PM on 12/24/2009

His saying he didn't campaign on a public option, did that not just take your breath away? Now they're busy rewriting history. They'll keep repeating that now over and over and over and over again, until everyone comes to accept it. He's turned out to be just another politician.

[Marcospinelli]

06:35 AM on 12/25/2009

"His saying he didn't campaign on a public option, did that not just take your breath away?"
====================================

Yes, it did. It's one thing when paid operatives, tr0//s around here, put that out as they have for months and people like me, who kept track of what he said and when, continue to correct the record to prevent these false memes from taking hold. It's another when Obama, himself, is directly involved in the subterfuge. That ends any doubt about the man's character and integrity -- He's got none.

Obama's pretty much been insulated these past few months, letting his surrogates carry the water for his continuing the Bush-Cheney policies. He hasn't faced a press conference in months, not that the worthless media would ask him any of the tough questions that need asking. His comments to WaPo, particularly on the eve of the Senate passing the bill and leaving town for the holidays, seem over-the-top and unnecessarily divulging. I think those opposed to this bill, who want real reform (the left), are stronger and closer to getting it (getting the House to draw a line in the sand and telling Obama to pound rocks) than Obama wants anyone to believe. I can't imagine Obama saying what he said for anything other reason.

[Marcospinelli]

06:42 AM on 12/25/2009

Here's Lawrence O'Donnell on yesterday's Countdown with Keith Olbermann taking on Obama's claims that he never campaigned for the public option. O'Donnell showed clips throughout the campaign where Obama did campaign on the public option:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96U-7lILbXc

[shivers]

09:22 PM on 12/24/2009

Dear Obama,

thanks for the great Christmas preasant. Your the best.

Love,

Big Insurance

[Brett1981]

09:40 PM on 12/24/2009

Dear Big Insurance,

Just keep the campaign contributions coming.

Regards,

Obama

P.S. Rahm made $18 million in two years on Wall Street after leaving the Clinton White House. He expects a lot more this time around.

[WritusMaximus]

04:59 AM on 12/25/2009

LOL! Nothing like pointing to the minimum wage for VIPs and demanding more!

[Blasphemy]

11:10 PM on 12/24/2009

Very intelligent. No debate or argument, just spewing out fallacy.

[WritusMaximus]

06:07 AM on 12/26/2009

Gee, to think that Obama's meeting with Health Insurance industry was for naught!

[Jazzcomedian]

09:04 PM on 12/24/2009

The choice last November was between Obama and McCain. Those were our choices. I, unlike a lot of others, didn't have any great expectations of President Obama, but I did have dire expectations for the country if McCain got elected. Whoever got elected was going to be handed a shattered country on all fronts. The worst mess I've even seen handed to a new president in my 60 years here. It's like we didn't have anybody in Washington during that time, doing anything, about anything affecting this country. It was political malpractice. I'm an independent, and no fan of the Dems, but it's pretty clear that the GOP has gone over to the dark side. They have totally lost the plot. They want to turn America into Pottersville.

Six presidents have tried to get some kind of healthcare reform here--including Teddy Roosevelt and Nixon. They weren't chumps, and they all failed. So it must be hard--don't you think. No one can say with any credibility, that they know how to get healthcare passed with a public option. No one. Unfortunately, since I'd like one, it appears to be impossible to get a public option here in "the greatest country in the world".

When President Obama signs a healthcare bill, with or without a public option, that will be indisputable progress. What we have now is unbearable. You progressives can bitch and moan, and grind your teeth if you want, but I for one will applaud him.

[Lori Baker]

09:11 PM on 12/24/2009

I usually consider myself a progressive, but I agree with the point of your post 100%.
This is good. This is a starting place. Yes, a public option is what we want, but reform of this kind is progress, which is something we haven't had in this country in a LONG time on any front.

[outragedkar]

09:16 PM on 12/24/2009

Thank you for one of the most realistic views posted. No other words needed. Repost for later fools.

[WritusMaximus]

05:11 AM on 12/25/2009

I agree. This is a great starting point, you fools, but since you don't see it, allow me to illustrate for you:

1-Fork over money now for benefits four years down the road. Yup, some may die waiting, but consider it the price for progress.
2-Expand Medicaid, a program where roughly fifty percent of doctors nationwide don't accept. Doctors don't know what they are missing---it's their loss, them fools!
3- Keep Health Insurance anti-trust legislation intact, allow companies to collude, no competition, charge and charge and charge as much as they want. This is a free country, you fools, so they have this exemption by law!

There are more great things found in this piece of..............legislation (fooled you, didn't I!), but you fools must do your own research!

[nastywolf]

08:47 PM on 12/24/2009

Obama and Emanuel will be working overtime to make sure that the reconciliation bill contains nothing that would force BigInsurer to compete for business.

[cliffhammond]

08:49 PM on 12/24/2009

That's becoming more obvious day by painful day as we realize him message of hope was all (globalist) neoliberal corporatist pander.

[cliffhammond]

08:34 PM on 12/24/2009

I'm not sure we can take anymore "help" from this backroom deal-making phony.

[scottowego]

08:29 PM on 12/24/2009

I'm sure he'll get right on it when he comes back from vacation in Hawaii at the beach. In other words.... I'll believe it when I see it. Happy holidays everybody!