RUSH: Now, here’s ‘Obama’s Stunning Admission,’ Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan: B-e-v-a-n. It might be ‘Bee-van.’ I don’t know how he pronounces it and I don’t want to accidentally mispronounce somebody’s name. He said, ‘There’s been a remarkable amount of coverage of President Obama’s appearance at the House Republican retreat today, but I haven’t seen anyone focus on the President’s rather stunning admission about the Democrats’ health care legislation.’ And here’s what Obama said about it: ‘The last thing I will say, though — let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues.
‘If you look at the package that we’ve presented — and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.’ Might have? Mr. President, it was never in there! You were the only one that was ever saying, ‘If you like your insurance, you can keep it.’ Both the House and Senate bills specifically had ways, numerous ways in which people would not be able to avoid losing their existing coverage and plans.
He was the only one saying it. Now, Mr. Bevan says, ‘If we take this statement at face value, President Obama is admitting the the [sic] health care bills passed by either the House or Senate (or both) contained provisions which were ‘snuck in’ — presumably by Democratic members and perhaps on behalf of certain lobbyists — that would have in fact prevented people from keeping their current insurance and/or choosing the doctor they want. This was one of the core debates on health care throughout last year: Would President Obama and the Democrats’ legislation allow government to come between citizens and their choice of doctors and insurers? Obama promised it wouldn’t. Republicans said it would, and this was one of the aspects of the legislation that led them to characterize it as a government takeover of health care — the same characterization that Obama chastised the GOP for today.
‘So it’s a bit of shock to find out now — from the President himself, no less – that one or both of the bills that passed Congress late last year (the House passed its version in late November, the Senate on Christmas Eve Day) contained language that would have violated this pledge.’ So he knew the pledge was violated. There was no effort to take it out. There was no effort to take out. He says, ‘We were in the process of eliminating it.’ Well, no way. I mean, the House and Senate bills both contained it. You remember, folks. If any aspect of your current health care plan changed — including if your premium went up or if the deductible changed or if you changed provider — that was it. You were through, and you were going to have to go to the government option. And, by the way, the government option is as much alive today as it ever was in these backroom, strategic negotiations. And of course the states are working on this. We had that story. ‘States Seeking to Ban Mandatory Health Insurance.’ You can go to jail for it under the bill if you don’t have insurance. You can get fined or perhaps even go to jail. Right now, ‘Lawmakers in 34 states now have filed or proposed amendments to their state constitutions or statutes rejecting health insurance mandates, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council…’ They don’t want any part of this.