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 Ferociousness And The Contention - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Bill Burton 8/10/09 — Monday, August 10, 2009 —  Q What did the President think of Pelosi and Hoyer's comment in the op/ed about the disruptions being un-American?MR. BURTON: Well, I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America. The President thinks that if people want to come and have a spirited debate about health care, a real vigorous conversation about it, that's a part of the American tradition and he encourages that, because people do have questions and concerns about -- Q Does he encourage the disruptions? MR. BURTON: Well, one second. And so if people want to come and have their concerns and their questions answered, the President thinks that's important. Now, if you just want to come to a town hall so that you can disrupt and so that you can scream over another person, he doesn’t think that that's productive. And as a country, we've been able to make progress when people actually talk out what our problems are, not try to shout each other down. So he thinks that we're going to be able to have a constructive conversation tomorrow and he'll continue to do that at the town hall later in the week and throughout this effort. Q The advance people heard nothing about what the audience is likely to be tomorrow, no expectation about whether there is going to be any voices raised? MR. BURTON: Well, at all these events you get a different kind of crowd, and certainly there have been events with the President where some people are livelier than at others. So the President is looking forward to going to New Hampshire tomorrow. Q What is the President's reaction been to the town halls in the last week? I mean, is he surprised by the sort of ferociousness and the contention? Is he -- what's his -- MR. BURTON: Well, there's obviously a lot of passion on one side of this, and that's why people are showing up and screaming. And again he doesn't think that that's constructive. But, you know, there's passion on the other side, too -- the people who want health care reform and who think that it's wrong that health insurance companies can stop you from getting coverage just because you have a preexisting condition, or drop you from coverage just because you get sick. So the President's reaction has been that there's more questions to be asked, but there's -- the American people are foursquare behind getting some kind of health care reform so that we can change the way that it's delivered in this country, and he's going to continue to work towards that effort. Q Does he think people are being put up to it? MR. BURTON: Well, I think less important than the motivations or the organizations or who's putting it together is that there's a lot of energy out there on this issue, on either side. And the President views his role as getting health care reform done for the American people and in order to do that, that means going out there and being prepared to have a robust and vigorous discussion. Air Force One | Bill Burton | Health Care | President Obama | Press Gaggle | Town Hall Meetings | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Bill Burton, Health Care, President Obama, Press Gaggle, Town Hall Meetings, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:25:00 PM 
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