If you presumed the White House would finally admit that President Barack Obama lied when he made the now infamous claim that “if you like your plan, you can keep it” simply because Politifact now says he did, you’re in for some shocking news.
At the White House press briefing this afternoon, reporters questioned Obama spokesman Jay Carney about Politifact’s announcement last night that it had named the President’s claim its 2013 “Lie of the Year.” Not only did the White House Press Secretary refuse to acknowledge that the President lied about the effect Obamacare would have on individual health insurance plans, he said Obama’s been “candid” and “honest” in his approach to addressing the problems with Obamacare.
“[A]s you know, the President in an interview, earlier this fall took this question head on and expressed his concern for those individuals, those Americans who received cancellation notices and were potentially adversely impacted by or affected by that and took action to encourage states and state insurance commissioners to allow those who wanted to stay on existing plans to stay on them longer,” Carney said. “So I think he’s, in a very honest way, addressed this question.”
After being widely reproached for lying to Americans about being able to keep their healthcare coverage, Obama first tried to claim in November that, “If you had or have one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really like that plan, what we said was, you could keep it if hasn’t changed since the law’s passed.” When that didn’t fly, the President expressed sympathy for Americans who didn’t realize they were going to lose their health insurance plans under Obamacare, but he stopped short of apologizing for lying to them.
“I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” he told NBC News in an interview. “We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.”
Republicans felt that Obama’s so-called apology wasn’t good enough, as many people who supported the health care law might not have if they had been told the truth sooner. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans may lose their health insurance plans.
At the press briefing, Carney refused to acknowledge the gravity of the situation, instead, taking taking a swipe at Politifact for its wishy-washy stance in the past on Obama’s ‘lie.’
“End of the year categorizations like that are always fun, even when they don’t jive with past characterizations or the very same statement, but we’re focused on implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” Carney said, adding later that, “I don’t think that history’s assessment of this period will depend on end of the year lists.”
Carney went on to lay out what criteria he thinks the administration should be judged on, which includes addressing the problems of healthcare.gov and whether or not “the fundamental promise” of Obamacare is met – “making affordable, quality health insurance available and accessible to millions of Americans across the country, many of whom did not have that opportunity in the past.”
So far, the White House seems to be 0/2, on that front, as well.
