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 The President Has Been Involved The Whole Time - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 12/14/09 — Monday, December 14, 2009 —  Q The Senate has now said that it would like to expand access to Medicare of those aged 55 and above. That is an alternative approach that the House is taking. Which does the President think is better?MR. GIBBS: I'm sorry, say it one more time. Q The Senate bill on health care wants to provide access to those on Medicare down to age 55. That is a different -- different approach to expanding coverage under the rubric of public option than the House has taken. Which of these two approaches does the President believe is better? MR. GIBBS: I'm -- Q Does he have an opinion? If not, why not? MR. GIBBS: What the President wants to do is see the process through the Senate, continue to make progress, and that's what the administration is working toward. Q But I mean, that's a rather large systemic change to Medicare, and many budget analysts who are not opposed to health care reform as principle, have said this is -- MR. GIBBS: Well, let me interrupt -- Q -- a potentially large financial -- MR. GIBBS: -- because I don't want to get ahead of the CBO, because I know the CBO is working on just that, just as the CBO had told you all before that legislation bends the cost curve, that legislation would slow the growth rate in health care spending, that health care legislation wouldn’t add to the deficit, but it would in fact help our fiscal situation. And you've seen the CBO talk about the extended life to the Medicare trust fund that legislation that the Senate is currently debating would have in terms of the specific policy. Again, that's what the CBO is evaluating, and I think many on Capitol Hill await what they have to say. Q Is the White House agnostic on which approach to a public option is better? MR. GIBBS: The President is not agnostic to continue to making progress on health care reform and we're trying to get it through the Senate. [...] Q Robert, has the President picked up the phone and called Joe Lieberman about health care reform? MR. GIBBS: Not that I'm aware of, no. Q Would he consider that? Is the report true that's published on Politico that the White House is encouraging Senator Reid to sit down and make a deal with Lieberman and give up on the Medicare expansion? MR. GIBBS: I can only say this, Ann: The President is anxious to see progress and will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans -- Q And independents. MR. GIBBS: -- and independents, and everyone in between to make that progress, to take those steps. Q Is this a serious problem with Senator Lieberman? Would the President get involved? MR. GIBBS: Well, Ann, the President has been involved. We wouldn't be -- we wouldn't be sitting here, the 14th of December, when you'd much rather be Christmas shopping, discussing the Senate being in on the weekends if the President wasn't involved. The President has been involved the whole time. Health Care | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Senate | Senator Joe Lieberman | White House Press Corps Labels: Health Care, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Senate, Senator Joe Lieberman, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 10:23:00 PM  Add-ons to Financial Bailout Bill - White House Press Briefing by Tony Fratto 10/1/08 — Wednesday, October 01, 2008 —  Q Tony, is the White House concerned at all about the possibility of losing votes in the House because of the add-ons in the Senate bill?MR. FRATTO: Right now we're focused on the Senate. We think the modifications are helpful and will help to achieve passage in the House. Q Didn't you want a clean bill, though? You didn't want a lot of add-ons and you're ending up with add-ons. MR. FRATTO: Well, we didn't want a lot of add-ons. We didn't want things that we felt would be harmful to the economy. But since we started working with the Congress 10 days ago on the actual legislation, we've made a number of changes and modifications. The things that are being added on right now, on the tax extenders, these are things that we have all supported. In fact, both Houses support extending the tax credits for renewable energy; both support AMT reform. There's a dispute in terms of whether they should be offset, and of course, we have opposed increasing taxes to pay for fixing a problem in the tax code. And the FDIC decision has been a recent one that we think will garner some additional support. So, yes, look, this is not -- it's never a straight line in trying to get legislation like this, and we're very appreciative of the Senate's efforts to try to develop this legislation in a way that will be successful. Congress | Legislation | Press Briefing | Senate | Tony Fratto | Wall Street | White House Press Corps Labels: Congress, Legislation, Press Briefing, Senate, Tony Fratto, Wall Street, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:26:00 PM White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/19/07 (Senate FISA Bill) — Friday, October 19, 2007 — MS. PERINO: Well, I think it's premature to say who else might see them. The Senate Intelligence Committee and Senator Rockefeller and Senator's Bond's staff had showed a willingness to want to include in their legislation retroactive liability protection for companies that were alleged to have helped the United States in the days after 9/11. Because they were willing to do that, we were willing to show them some of the documents that they asked to see. The Senate FISA bill has many good components. We appreciate the serious work that has been done by Senator Rockefeller and Senator Bond. We have not seen the final product yet that came out of the markup. And so we need to see that before we comment further. We are disappointed that the bill includes a sunset provision. We don't think that that's necessary. And we have strong concerns about one of the amendments that came out of the markup yesterday -- the Wyden amendment. That is one that we would like to see taken out of the bill. We don't think that it was intended to be in there, and I think the staff is working on that. And so we'll let that process play out. But to the extent of anyone else being able to see the documents, I think that we'll wait and see to see who else is willing to include that provision in the bill. Q Dana, could you talk about the Wyden amendment a little bit? What specifically -- MS. PERINO: Well, we haven't seen the final language, but as we understand it, we would have concerns because we would not be able to accept it. The Chair and the Vice Chair, Senators Rockefeller and Bond, I understand recognize the problem with the language and are in agreement that it needs to be changed. It basically was, as I understand it, hastily drafted and agreed to, and it would, as an end result, take a step backwards beyond even before where we were when the original FISA bill was passed in 1978 in regards to targeting foreign intelligence overseas. Bond | Dana Perino | FISA | Press Briefing | Rockefeller | Senate | White House Press Corps | Wiretapping | Wyden Labels: Bond, Dana Perino, FISA, Press Briefing, Rockefeller, Senate, White House Press Corps, Wiretapping, Wyden
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:05:00 PM
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