President Barack Obama, today, in front of the American Medical Association:
What are not legitimate concerns are those being put forward claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system. … So, when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this – they are not telling the truth.
Now watch and listen to then candidate Barack Obama, UC Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) talk about the virtues of the pubic plan:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ-6ebku3_E[/youtube]
Obama explicitly says: “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan.”
Hacker explicitly says: “Someone once said to me this is a Trojan Horse for single-payer, and I said, well its not a Trojan Horse, right? It’s just right there.”
Schakowsky explicitly says: “And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who argued against the public health insurance option, saying it wouldn’t let private insurance compete. That a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single-payer. My single-payer friends, he was right. The man was right.”
Hacker and Schakowsky are both honest proponents of a single-payer system. They both support President Obama’s public option on the explicit understanding that it is a Trojan horse that will eventually lead to a single-payer system. And Obama has said: “If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system.”
Is the President saying that Rep. Schakowsky, who’s backing his proposal, is not telling the truth?