In Muzikal's Liveblog of the OFA event today she tries to justify her accusation of the President being dishonest by writing:
When Smerconish asked him if Sebelius "misspoke" when she said the public option isn't essential to the new plan, Obama said she didn't misspeak she simply said what they've been saying all along. When Smerconish mentioned that a lof of people seemed to think a public plan was a big part of his health care proposal during the election, Obama laughed it off and said she didn't understand why people thought that.
I shrugged this off until her behavior today of constantly changing the title of the diary began to make me wonder about the honesty of her interpretation of the interview. Fortunately there is such a thing as transcripts and when we go to the source we see a completely different picture.
The last two paragraphs of Obama's answer to the Smerconish's question after he talked about a number of the other components to the reform, and after Muzikal apparently stopped listening, were:
(Obama):... But one of the options we talked about was a public option where there wouldn't be a profit motive involved. It would be non-for-profit, and that public option would give you affordable health insurance.
Now, what we've said is we think that's a good idea. But we haven't said that that's the only aspect of health insurance. And what she essentially said was, is that all these other insurance reforms are just as important as the public option. The press got a little excited and some folks on the left got a little excited about this. Our position hasn't changed. We think that the key is cost control, competition, making sure that people have good, quality options. If we're able to achieve that, that's the end that we're seeking. And the means -- you know, we can have some good arguments about what the best way to achieve it is, but we've got to change because the status quo is unsustainable.
And then in answer to a caller asking why can't we all have the same system federal employees have, Obama reiterated his support for the Public Option:
(Obama):...The same concept is what we're trying to do in setting up what's called a health insurance exchange. Essentially it'd be a marketplace where people who currently don't have health insurance or small businesses could pool their numbers so they have leverage over the insurance companies and they could go on a Web site and look at the various options, the types of various private health insurance plans that are being offered, and choose the one that's best for their families. So we're actually trying to duplicate what exists for federal employees. We want to make that available to everybody else.
Now, what we have said is, let's make a public option one choice of many choices that are available to people who are joining the exchange. And I see nothing wrong with potentially having that public option as one option for federal employees, as well.
But the important thing that I think I have to make absolutely clear: Nobody would be obligated to choose the public option. If you went on that Web site and you said, you know what, Aetna or Blue Cross Blue Shield are offering a good deal and I would rather choose that plan than the public plan, you'd be perfectly free to do so. Nobody would be saying you are obligated to go into a public plan.
Muzikal objects to the fact that when asked to provide a bullet-point list of the HCR musts he doesn't specifically say the words Public Option. What Muzikal provides him saying is simply a "set of options". What Muzikal leaves out is the whole sentence which goes: "I want to make sure that we have a health exchange, as I just described, that is similar to what members of Congress have where you will have a set of options." What he just described included a Public Option as an integral part of the Health Exchange. He then continues by giving the rationale which any thinking person could only understand as being about the Public Option:
(Obama): ... If you're a small business, if you're an individual, self-employed, you have trouble getting health insurance right now, you can go and look at a bunch of options. And we've got to make it affordable for middle-class families, so part of the plan has to be that if you can't afford a market-based premium, that we're giving you a little bit of help and you're able to get health insurance.
So exactly who is the one being dishonest I ask.
Update: Link to transcript: http://blogs.suntimes.com/...