In response to the article linked in this post, saying that the President is now pushing for a pared down health care bill that drops many of the current provisions included in the House and Senate bills, the White House put out this statement late this afternoon. From the White House Web site:
On Next Steps for Health ReformObama's "preference" is for the "principles."
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on January 20, 2010 at 05:46 PM EST
Right now there are a lot of discussions going on about the best path forward. But let's be clear that the President's preference is to pass a bill that meets the principles he laid out months ago: more stability and security for those who have insurance, affordable coverage options for those who don’t, and lower costs for families, businesses, and governments.
The Senate bill is over 2,000 pages long. Giving us three principles - that the President "prefers," rather than actually wants - does not answer the question as to what President Obama does and doesn't want to see in the final bill. Why can't he just take a position, explain it, defend it, and then fight for it?
