By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Aug. 19, 2009 – The question remains; will the president sign a bill that does not have a public insurance option offered by the federal government?  That’s the question lingering and causing controversy and confusion – and Congress is waiting to hear President Obama’s answer. 

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was drilled Tuesday on what is being characterized as a major shift in policy by the president.  Gibbs insisted the president maintains his support for a public option calling it the “preferred” method of reaching his goals, but declined to say it was “essential.” 

“He  [the president]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,” Gibbs insisted.

“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?”

But the bottom line for those Democrats who wanted a single payer system, like the Medicare program, feel they’ve already compromised by accepting the public option and won’t vote for a bill without it. 

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings wants the president to stick to word, “President Obama has emphasized the importance of the public option in the past, and we cannot afford to drop such a critical component of reform in favor of another option that isn’t guaranteed to make any significant difference in the status quo.”
Concerns about the status quo are a reality if the survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is any indication.  The results of the monthly poll to determine consumer confidence in their health insurance coverage and access to care dropped across the board in July.

More than half, 51.9 percent of those surveyed are worried they won’t be able to afford the cost of a serious illness; 41 percent are concerned they won’t be able to pay for routine health care; and 35.6 percent are concerned they won’t be able to afford prescription drugs they need.

 Are you concerned about your health care coverage now or the near future? 

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Aug. 17, 2009 – If President Obama folds on the public option he could very well fail to get the most venerable populations insured leaving  46 million Americans without insurance and faced with health care options they can’t afford.

The insurance industry has managed to use every possible tactic to frighten Americans into thinking a public option would  drive private insures out of business and be the precursor to a national health care program.  

The Obama administration hasn’t been able to effectively explain this complex issue and are now on the defense.  

During the campaign Obama made it clear he would not go for a “single payer” option used for Medicare program to make sure the insurance industry would  go along with the talk of reform.  But now the insurance industry wants to guarantee no competition in the market place, and they just might get their wish.

The signs became obvious over the weekend.  Secretary of Health and Human Service Kathleen Sebelius said a government –run insurance program wasn’t the “essential element” of reform.   White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told CBC’s Face the Nation,  the president still wants a public option, but in the end wants to have “choice and competition in the insurance market.”

An even bigger indicator was the what the president didn’t say during the town hall in Grand Junction, Colo,. on Saturday.  He defended the public option but indicated he was open to alternative approaches as long as they reduce cost, expand coverage and don’t add to the deficit. 

The president’s best arguments for a public option aren’t being heard and he needs a bigger bullhorn.  Here are excerpts from his remarks at the Grand Junction that build a strong case for the public option; 

“Insurance companies will no longer be able to place an arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive.”

“In the past few years, premiums have nearly doubled. And total out of pocket costs have increased by almost fifty percent – that’s more than $2,000 per person.”

“Almost 90 percent of individual health insurance policies have lifetime benefit limits. About a third of family plans in the individual insurance market have lifetime limits under $3 million. If you or your spouse or your child gets sick, and you hit that limit, suddenly it’s like you have no insurance at all.”

“Recent reports found that in the past few years, more than 12 million Americans were discriminated against by insurance companies because of a preexisting condition.”

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Aug. 5, 2009 – President Bill Clinton’s unannounced visit and meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has led to the release and pardon of two journalists the North Korean government had sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

President Bill Clinton, seated left, meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, seated right, in Pyongyang, North Korea.

“President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families,” Clinton’s spokesman Matt McKenna said in a statement released Tuesday night.  

This morning on the South Lawn of the White House, President Obama told reporters, “I think that not only is this White House obviously extraordinarily happy, but all Americans should be grateful to both former President Clinton and Vice President Gore for their extraordinary work.  And my hope is, is that the families that have been reunited can enjoy the next several days and weeks, understanding that because of the efforts of President Clinton and Gore, they are able to be with each other once again.”

 
Reports that the two journalists had been released didn’t surface until after a meeting with Clinton and Kim had concluded and their release negotiated.  White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not answer any questions about Clinton’s trip and released a statement early Tuesday saying Clinton’s “solely private mission” would not be discussed so as not to “jeopardize the success of former President Clinton’s mission.”

Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, were found guilty and sentenced in June for entering the country illegally and engaging in what was considered “hostile acts.”  Both journalists were working for former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV when North Korean guards arrested them near the border with China in March. Gore had also worked to get the women released. 

The families of both reporters tried to work behind the scenes for the release of their loved ones, but their arrest came at a time of heightened tension between the U.S. and North Korea.  The constant threat by North Korea to continue its nuclear testing made negotiations difficult.

 According to The Associated Press, the families of the two women, who had sent letters pleading for the women’s release, issued a joint statement thanking President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their work.

“We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home,” according to the statement posted on a Web site dedicated to freeing the two journalists.

We should applaud Clinton, Gore and the Obama White House for a team effort with a remarkable outcome.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 29, 2009 – President Barack Obama sent a handwritten, private letter to the family of Michael Jackson over the weekend, expressing his condolences. 

Following the announcement Thursday of Jackson’s unexpected death, reporters pressed for a reaction from the commander-in-chief.  During Friday’s briefing,  White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters:  “I talked to him about it this morning.  Look, he said to me that obviously, Michael Jackson was a spectacular performer, a music icon.  I think everybody remembers hearing his songs, watching him moonwalk on television during Motown’s 25th anniversary.”

“But the President also said, look, he had — aspects of his life were sad and tragic.  And his condolences went out to the Jackson family and to fans that mourned his loss,” Gibbs added.

On Sunday, David Axelrod, senior adviser to the president told NBC’s Meet the Press; “the president has written the family and has shared his feelings with the family.”  

“The president obviously believes that he was an important and magnificent performer,” Axelrod said.  “Obviously, he led a sad life in many ways as well, but his impact is undeniable,” he said.

There are no plans for the president’s “private” letter of condolences to be released to the public.

While the investigation into the “King of Pop’s” death continues, Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s personal physician and the last man to see him alive, was interviewed by homicide detectives over the weekend.  While he has hired a high-powered attorney to represent him, investigators said he has been helpful filling in the last  hours of the singer’s life. 

Murray, a cardiologist, was living at Jackson’s home in Los Angeles when he suffered cardiac arrest.  The family has requested a second autopsy and is awaiting those results.   

The Jackson family has gathered at the family home in Encino, Calif., to start plans for MJ’s memorial and decide if it will be public or private.   The Jackson family patriarch Joseph released a statement saying, “In one of the darkest moments of our lives we find it hard to find the words appropriate to this sudden tragedy we all had to encounter.

“Our beloved son, brother and father of three children has gone so unexpectedly, in such a tragic way and much too soon. It leaves us, his family, speechless and devastated to a point where communication with the outside world seems almost impossible at times.”

Tribute celebrations are already planned in Detroit and New York and more are expected around the world in addition to the family’s memorial in Los Angeles.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 23, 2009 – President Barack Obama has scheduled his first Rose Garden news conference for Tuesday marking his fourth face-to-face with the Washington press in his nearly six months in office.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told us at Monday’s briefing the president would open with remarks on health care, energy legislation and Iran’s disputed election.   

This news conference will be unlike the first three held in the East Room of the White House.  This would be the first time reporters will be given the opportunity for extended questioning of the president on a wide range of issues.

The president will most likely use this press conference to sure-up his popularity which in recent weeks has started to falter according to recent polls.  His numbers in a survey released Monday by Rasmussen are trending lower, of those surveyed 54 percent of voters say he doing a good job, a slip from over the last three months where he held an approval rating in the mid-60.   

 But that’s just one poll, others give the president a sizable approval rating, the lower numbers e appear to be with some Independents who are questioning the Administration’s deficit spending.

 Peter Hart, conducted a Wall St Journal/NBC survey this month, the pollster said the president quiet popular, “but there are a lot more thorns in [it]”.  Meaning folks are watching him more closely.  Even an  CBS /New York Times poll found that 52 percent vs. 41 percent of  voters surveyed want him to reduce the ballooning trillion-dollar annual federal deficits  rather than spending to stimulate the economy.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst 

Feb. 24, 2009 — Tonight, when President Barack Obama addresses the joint session of Congress, everyone will be waiting to hear how he plans to keep his pledge to cut the U.S. budget deficit by half during his first term.

The president will give an overview of his priorities Tuesday, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday. “The President outlined in his radio address [Saturday] a budget that is sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting — which is a change — that will, as I said, invest in what we need, cut out what we don’t, and restore fiscal responsibility.”

 The details of the president’s first budget will be rolled out on Thursday.

During the opening of a summit on fiscal responsibility, Obama told participants, “If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road.”

The summit was called to look at what’s in store for the nation’s fiscal future and to examine the financial health of the country.  The president and Vice President Joe Biden met with Republican and Democratic governors, who could benefit from his $787 billion emergency spending-and-tax-cut measure.

Warning signs of a tough road ahead were scattered throughout the president’s remarks, but ended with an optimistic plan for the future. It’s true he inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit when he took office and he noted interest payments in 2008 alone hit $250 billion. That’s the bad news.

“We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end,” he said. “Today I’m pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office.”

The summit, like his address to Congress, had folks from both sides of aisle.  Republicans are now calling for a spending freeze on the heels of the president’s stimulus bill becoming law.

Tuesday night we’ll hear a lot focused on pulling the United States out of recession, getting folks back to work and addressing the problems in the financial sector that sparked the downturn.  But that won’t be all. Obama also wants to make good on campaign promises that he’ll extend health care benefits to the uninsured, tackle the fighting climate change and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

This sounds like a tall order.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst  

Jan. 21, 2009 – “Day No. 1” has arrived for President Barack Obama and he’s not waiting around to get started.  On Tuesday night as Americans watched the first couple navigate 10 Inaugural Balls, a dozen or more members of Obama’s White House staff filed into Pennsylvania Avenue to get ready for what’s in store. 

Today will be the president’s first full day in office and will begin the count of his first 100 days.  However, Obama managed to add official business to the ceremonial day as well. He announced the White House would halt the Guantanamo Bay war crimes trials; his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel signed an order halting President George Bush’s last-minute regulations; and he formally nominated seven Cabinet secretaries who were approved by the Senate by acclimation. 

 Later today Obama will meet with advisors while staff concentrates on setting up computers, phones lines and e-mail for everyone.  The first press briefing hasn’t been firmly scheduled, but should take place mid-day on Wednesday according press secretary Robert Gibbs.

I’ll be at the White House all afternoon and will update you on the happening on day one.  The White House Webpage is already up and running.