Artist Has Message about Health Care Reform; White House Press Conference on President's Remarks about Health Care
PHILLIPS: Robert Gibbs taking questions from reporters at the White House briefing, talking health care. Let's listen in.</s>ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: When he talks about the essentials of health care reform, OK, let's understand the principles that he's put up there, right? We have to cut costs for families and small businesses. That's essential. It has to be deficit-neutral. That's essential. What's essential is ensuring that we provide accessibility in health care reform to millions of those that don't currently have it.</s>ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So, when you say a public option is now the president's preferred choice, has been and is his preferred choice...</s>GIBBS: I'm not just saying that now. I'm saying I said that repeatedly. The president has said that.</s>HENRY: OK. So, is the public option an essential part of health reform?</s>GIBBS: I think the president answered that on Saturday.</s>HENRY: Yes, so why did...</s>GIBBS: No, no, no, no, no. How many times...</s>HENRY: So, why did the health secretary say no on Sunday?</s>GIBBS: What did the president say on Saturday?</s>HENRY: So, it is essential. It is essential.</s>GIBBS: No, no, no, no, no, no. Ed, Ed, Ed...</s>HENRY: The secretary said Sunday it's not.</s>GIBBS: Ed, what did the president say on Sunday -- or Saturday?</s>HENRY: Saturday, he spoke positively about a public option but also said we could have it, we may have it, we may not have it.</s>GIBBS: I think he used the word "essential."</s>HENRY: I'll go back and see if he used the word "essential." But why...</s>GIBBS: You go back and look at the transcript and</s>HENRY: So, let's say, let's say -- I don't have the transcript, but if he did use the word "essential" on Saturday, why did his health secretary not use the word "essential" on Sunday?</s>GIBBS: They said the same thing on Saturday as they did on Sunday. Go back and look at the transcript, Ed. I think you'll...</s>HENRY: Just tell me, though, why did she say it's not? You can't answer that.</s>GIBBS: Go find the transcript, and I promise you, you'll answer your question and wonder why you were phrasing it the way you did because, no offense, Ed, you seem to have heard what the secretary said on Sunday but not what the president said on Saturday.</s>HENRY: I think I heard what he said.</s>GIBBS: Well, go back and take a gander at the transcript.</s>GIBBS: Well, Jake, in all honesty, I don't think anybody has seen a level of detail thus far that would -- that you'd be able to make a completely educated assumption on what we've seen.</s>TAPPER: Conrad said on Sunday that the votes are not there in the Senate for the public option. Do you guys agree?</s>GIBBS: I'd have to talk to -- I haven't talked to leg affairs on that. I think that's simply what -- that's what a lot of people have said.</s>TAPPER: Right, but you guys count votes. You guys are involved in...</s>GIBBS: Yes, I haven't talked to them recently about the exact vote count.</s>TAPPER: OK, there's also a thing I wanted to read you in a letter sent last week to the White House from the National Association of Postal Supervisors. The president of that union, Ted Keating, said that his union had a, quote, "collective disappointment, that you," meaning the president, "chose the postal service as a scapegoat and an example of inefficiency." Does the president -- has the president seen that letter? Has he responded? Does he regret using the post office as an example of inefficiency?</s>GIBBS: I doubt he's seen that letter, and I don't have any reason to believe he regrets it since he refuted (ph) it.</s>TAPPER: So far, I'm 0 for 3. Let me just try one more. The ACLU in April put in a Freedom of Information Act request for information about detainees at Bagram. The Pentagon responded to the ACLU, saying, we have information. We're not going to give it to you. Does that live up to the president's promises of transparency, given that the Pentagon has released that information about Gitmo detainees?</s>GIBBS: I saw your blog post on this, but I have not seen the letter and don't have any other information on it.</s>QUESTION: Setting aside the issue of whether or not what was said over the weekend at all is a different policy position, what your policy position is consistently is that the public option, while being the preferred method, is not a deal-breaker for the president. And I guess my question...</s>GIBBS: Yes. That's...</s>QUESTION: Right? I mean, that's what we are understanding.</s>GIBBS: That is what we have said. That's what we said in June, that's what we said in July, that's what we said...</s>QUESTION: So, working from that premise, which we can all agree on is the stated position today...</s>GIBBS: We can.</s>QUESTION: That does not give much comfort to many?</s>QUESTION: Before the AMA, the president never said it is not a deal breaker.</s>GIBBS: Just read that (ph).</s>QUESTION: Did the president ever tell these men in June that it was a deal breaker?</s>GIBBS: Just read that.</s>QUESTION: Just remember, consistency is</s>GIBBS: Thank you for that. I'm not sure whether we should go on or not.</s>QUESTION: Okay. Consistency aside, I guess my question is, assuming this has been a consistent position, this is the position that really bothered Democratic members of Congress. We are seeing it probably expressed more virulently than we had in the past because maybe they were unclear that this has been the administration's position all along. But what essentially the president is saying is that the public option, at the end of the day, is optional. I guess, my question is, what are you going to say to members of Congress who are threatening to walk out and say, if there is no public option, I'm not in this?</s>GIBBS: I would say it is the preferred option.</s>QUESTION: Does that give them a lot of comfort?</s>GIBBS: I am not a Democratic member of Congress.</s>QUESTION: Yes, but you're the White House, in the position to lead on this issue. It's clearly something that's important.</s>GIBBS: Well, again, I would point you back to what the president said. Ed's got my transcript. On Saturday. The president strongly believes that we have to have, and I mentioned -- I walked through the notion of why choice and competition are so fundamentally important to this debate, right? That in a monopoly, without consumer choice, without competition among health insurance providers, you are certainly not likely to see cutting costs. You are certainly not likely to see a competition on quality. Those are the goals that the president has.</s>QUESTION: Is it inherent in the president's position, consistent or not, is that he could envision a scenario in which he is without a public option? Many members of your party cannot...</s>GIBBS: He cannot envision a scenario in which we live with anything that doesn't provide choice and competition in a private insurance market that allows people to get the best deal possible on both the price and quality if they enter a private health insurance market. That's what the president's bottom line is. Do we have a system that provides that choice for consumers and that competition among insurers on quality and cost.</s>QUESTION: It's acceptable to the president but not acceptable to members of Congress in the Democratic party -- that's okay with you?</s>GIBBS: Well, the president is focused on many different goals. Cutting costs, coverage for millions who don't have accessibility, making it deficit-neutral, which he reiterated at each of the town halls, and ensuring cost -- ensuring choice and competition. That's what's important to the president of the United States.</s>QUESTION: Real quickly, have there been any</s>GIBBS: No, not that I'm -- the president hasn't made any - Rahm's fishing out West. David is in Michigan. And I doubt they are...</s>QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)</s>QUESTION: Have you seen this charge from Republicans on the Hill that they are asking, is he profiting from the payment he is getting from this firm? Is the firm involved in the Pharma advertisment deal...</s>GIBBS: That's ridiculous. David has left his firm to join public service.</s>GIBBS: That agreement that I think that was made because David started and owned the firm. He left the firm. If I'm not mistaken, he is being paid for the fact that he created it and sold it, which I think is somewhat based on the free market. Yes, ma'am.</s>QUESTION: What message will the president be delivering to religious groups on health care tomorrow?</s>GIBBS: He is going to talk about again, just the -- you are not going to see a difference in message. You are going to see the boring consistency of ensuring that we cut costs, ensuring that we take the steps that are necessary to relieve the burden on families and small business. Obviously, the president will talk about the importance of providing access to affordable health insurance for millions of those that currently don't have it. Boring consistency.</s>QUESTION: ... focusing on the uninsured rather than the public option?</s>GIBBS: Well, no. The president will continue to continue to talk about what he thinks is important in health care, and it will include all of those options. Mark?</s>QUESTION: Robert, is the White House taken aback by the $7 million pace authorized for the new CEO of AIG?</s>GIBBS: Well, I believe this is an agreement that we will go through the process of Ken Fineberg to ensure it is consistent with his principles. Obviously, the board wants to find a CEO that is knowledgeable about insurance companies and running an insurance company and hopefully getting an ailing company that was once a successful company that somebody had the bright idea of putting a hedge fund on top of.</s>QUESTION: AIG is the company that was 80 percent owned by taxpayers. Taxpayers who make $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 a year. So why isn't it -- why shouldn't taxpayers feel like suckers if they see the CEO of a government-owned company getting $7 million a year?</s>GIBBS: Well, look, Mark. The board is going to make a decision. We've talked about the president -- the president has talked about, we are not micromanaging these companies. Government is not making these decisions. The board wants an insurance company CEO who can help take a company that was once successful, as I said, somebody had the bright idea of putting a hedge fund on top of it. And it's now a royal mess. I think the board wants to see some good, competent leadership that can lead the company back towards profitability and hopefully the recoupment of some of the investment the taxpayers put out in order to prevent the calamity to our economy.</s>QUESTION: On another issue, does President Obama ever speak with either Bill or Hillary Clinton about health care and their experience?</s>GIBBS: I don't -- obviously, the secretary of state is in the Oval Office today as part of the larger Mumbark (ph) delegation meeting. Obviously, President Clinton, as we've talked about, will be here later today. I don't know to what degree to which they've discussed health care.</s>QUESTION: question we've asked you a couple times. You said you were going to check on it. Have you actually asked, or...?</s>GIBBS: I haven't asked, and I will be honest with you, that I am not entirely sure that I'm not going to keep private conversations between somebody like the secretary of state or the former president between the current and former president. Yes, ma'am.</s>QUESTION: Can you talk about whether the administration will come back in</s>GIBBS: Yes, I saw that right before I came out here. Obviously, I think the illusion is to have the U.N. General Assembly meeting which is -- I think it's that third week in September. I think it will be an important opportunity to continue to make progress on comprehensive Middle East peace. Obviously.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Health care reform and the public option, this has been the talk of the town on the morning shows over the weekend. Of course, we have been talking about it all afternoon. Our Ed Henry just a few minutes ago, too, taking Robert Gibbs there to task about it. Take a listen at the exchange they had.</s>GIBBS: The president, his position, the administration's position is unchanged, that we have a goal of fostering choice and competition in a private health insurance market. The president prefers the public option as a way of doing that. If others have ideas, we are open to those ideas and willing to listen to those details. That's what the president had said for months. Coincidentally, that's what the secretary of health and human services has said for months. It's what I've said for months. I think the suggestion somehow that anything that was said Saturday or Sunday has been new administration policy is just not something that I would agree with.</s>QUESTION: There seem to be a lot of people who took it as kind of floating a trial</s>GIBBS: Meaning the media? ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOSUE CORRESPONDENT No. Your supporters. Supporters in Congress do read it as a change. If you look at what the president said to the AMA on June 15th, he said, quote, "the public option is not your enemy. It is your friend." He is not saying that anymore.</s>GIBBS: What do you mean?</s>HENRY: He is no longer proactively, forgetting about what he is leaving in or out, let's just say...</s>HENRY: Can I finish my question?</s>GIBBS: No. I will finish my answer.</s>HENRY: OK. Go ahead.</s>GIBBS: The president was clear in two questions that he received at the town hall meeting on Saturday about the public option. The second question, which is a man in the red shirt over on the right- hand side, asked about the public option. And then the second to last question, the guy about the debate in the second or third row right off the podium, had the same question. Let me read this to you, Ed. This is -- you will notice -- let me just read. Secretary Sebelius, July 12th, 2009. "I think you are going to hear from senators about a variety of strategies to get to a public option. This isn't one-size, fits all. I think the president said we can have competition, the issues of competition and choice, and how to bring that into the private marketplace. There are probably a variety of strategies, all of which are on the table." Any guess on what network that was on?</s>HENRY: It was on CNN. But on Sunday, she was also on CNN...</s>GIBBS: A very correct assumption.</s>HENRY: So on Sunday, she was also on CNN and said that the public option is not the essential part of health reform. She didn't say that on July 12th, or whenever you picked that out. On June 15th, to the AMA, repeatedly the president proactively said the public option was the way to go. He said --</s>GIBBS: I just said it was the preferred option. I just said it was the preferred option.</s>QUESTION: Why did he on Saturday say, if there is a public option or there's not. And then, the secretary on Sunday says, it's the essential part.</s>GIBBS: No. No. The president said that on Saturday.</s>QUESTION: He said if there is one or not one. He hadn't said that before. Well, answer that one part before you get around and around. He had not said --</s>GIBBS: The president had said repeatedly that he's open to different ideas and discussions, that his preferred option was the public plan. He said that on Saturday. He said that on Saturday. I said that on Sunday.</s>PHILLIPS: All right, so bottom line, what does the public option really mean? It's obviously got a lot of Americans stirred up. You can see there in the White House briefing, it's got a lot of journalists there stirred up. The whole conversation in general, but focusing on the issue of the public option. Tom Foreman tries to put it into perspective for us.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you want to understand what's really happened with this whole health reform debate, think of the insurance business as a big shopping mall. There are a bunch of private stores that sell insurance. The supporters of reform say they don't really compete a whole lot with each other. So they let the prices get higher and higher. And there are people like this who really don't go anywhere and they don't fit into insurance reform. So, the goal of reformers, many of them, is to say, let's have a government insurance office in the middle of this mall. They will be heavily funded, they'll give a place for these people to go so they will have some kind of place where they can have insurance. And because they're offering a lower cost in alternative, because they're not out to make a profit, they will force the other places to lower their prices and effectively have a sale that will benefit everyone. Now, critics of this program say that that's not what's going to happen. They say instead of having a sale, what you're actually going to have is people that are driven out of business. There will simply be not enough business once all these people start being attracted to the more cost -- less expensive government insurance. So the bottom line is, this is the fear of those who say this is a bad idea. So if this does not happen, then what do you look at? Well, one other option is an insurance cooperative system. What is that? Well, an insurance cooperative basically would take people all across the country who can't afford insurance, no matter where they are, and it would connect all of these people to each other. By connecting them, it would make it possible for these people to share the cost of their medical expenses with each other. They would essentially form a small, private insurance company that they would run with their own board of directors. It's a nonprofit so it would also create competition for existing insurance companies but possibly push the prices down. At least that's the theory. But, this is also very much up in the air as to exactly how it would work, who would be involved and what it would really cost and what the benefits might or might not be.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, shutting the door on a death row appeal. A Texas judge is quoted as saying, "We close at 5:00." Hours later, a man is executed. Now, this judge is on trial herself.