Obama Calls His Own Website A Liar

The problem is President Obama and Obama's website have two radically different messages on the public option.

Yesterday Obama told the American people during a radio interview:

"We are willing to make compromises," Obama told his radio audience. But he said he is not willing to give up on "core principles."

Obama tried to clear up what he described as confusion surrounding his health-care proposal. He described the public option -- a government-run provider -- as only a small, and optional, part of his overall initiative.

"What we've said is, we think that's a good idea," Obama said of publicly funded health insurance. "We haven't said that's the only aspect."

The only problem is that the public option is (or at least was) a “principle” of health care reform. On his DNC website, Obama is still asking people to “stand with the president” by taking the following pledge:

The Principles

President Obama has announced three bedrock requirements for real health insurance reform:

-Reduce Costs — Rising health care costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals and families and they must be brought under control
-Guarantee Choice — Every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option*
-Ensure Quality Care for All — All Americans must have quality and affordable health care

Now we have to show Congress where the American people stand.

This lack of consistence makes it very hard for anyone to trust Obama. If he said honestly that he might need to sacrifice one of his core principles, like the public option, to insure that other important reforms to our health care system get passed that would be a message the progressive base might understand. (They would not be happy but they might at least understand.) Remember it is not just the "left of the left" demanding a public option. It was Obama who told his supporters to demand the public option as a "bedrock requirment" for reform.

Pretending that the public option was never a core principle when you have it still list on your own website as one of the three “Principles” and a “bedrock requirement” makes you look like a lying scumbag. (I foolishly thought that "bedrock requirements" were the same thing as "core princples.") Progressive now have no reason to trust Obama and have no idea what else could be cut from a final bill. If Obama is willing to change what is his “core principles” on a daily basis, everything is on the table.

Obama's supporters don't need "to show Congress where the American people stand." President Obama needs to show the Congress and the American people where he stands.

*Highlighting was mine