Stephanie Condon, a blogger for the Political Hotsheet of CBS News, said the White House is not living up to some of their promises made during the campaign. Specifically, at a town hall meeting in August 2008, Obama said, “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators… Insurance companies, drug companies…we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies…that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in the process.” In fact, the President has held private meetings in the White House with several representatives about the reform bill.
There has been misinformation on both sides of the aisle. Many Americans, whether they generally agree or oppose the reform proposals, don’t really have all the facts to make an educated decision. The White House’s effort to correct ‘fishy’ information is generating anger from the Republicans. They say that this will discourage Americans from voicing their opinions on the issue for fear of it being reported directly to the White House. The Obama administration says the reason why it is in place is to shoot down misinformation and tell the American people the facts.
There have been ongoing secret meeting within the Senate Finance Committee between three Republicans and three Democrats vying for a bipartisan bill. Democrats across the board complain that these three Democrats are conceding too much to the Republicans, including scrapping the controversial government-run insurance option, even though it is the Democrats who have the majority in both the House and the Senate.
Ms. Condon contends that if there were more C-SPAN broadcasts on health care legislation, there would be room for more understanding and make for real debate.
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