The President Admits That He Some Sneaky People Violated His “Pledge”
President Obama, speaking in Holmdel, New Jersey, 16 July 2009:
“Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you,” the president told residents of the Garden State. “First of all, if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan....”President Obama, State of the Union Address, 27 January 2010:
Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan.President Obama, appearing before the Republican Caucus, 29 January 2010
... let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we’ve presented — and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.What “stray dogs” and “stray cats” would those be? In addition to all their other transgressions, must Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi now also be reported to the SPCA? Sorry to be snarky here, but would some reporter please ask the president to be “exactly clear” about which of his health care provisions he now regards as stray mongrels?
More seriously, though, “let me say this about health care and the health care debate”: for once I find myself in total agreement with the president. It is absolutely true that the way he has debated the issue “bears on a whole lot of other issues.” He has repeatedly said things that are not true. He has repeatedly denied responsibility for his own decisions — those stray dogs and stray cats somehow “got in” without his knowing about them; those provisions that “might have” violated his pledge “got snuck in” without his knowledge or approval.
One final question: who, Mr. President, were the sneakers?