Obama is stressing the folks who have to handle his routine double-speak. They simply can’t keep up with the about-faces and embellished statements anymore. They are getting confused and actually telling the truth occasionally.
After meeting with six major health care organizations, Mr. Obama hailed their cost-cutting promise as historic.
“These groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment,” Mr. Obama said. “Over the next 10 years, from 2010 to 2019, they are pledging to cut the rate of growth of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year – an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.”
Health care leaders who attended the meeting have a different interpretation. They say they agreed to slow health spending in a more gradual way and did not pledge specific year-by-year cuts.
“There’s been a lot of misunderstanding that has caused a lot of consternation among our members,” said Richard J. Umbdenstock, the president of the American Hospital Association. “I’ve spent the better part of the last three days trying to deal with it.”
Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said “the president misspoke” on Monday and again on Wednesday when he described the industry’s commitment in similar terms. After providing that account, Ms. DeParle called back about an hour later on Thursday and said: “I don’t think the president misspoke. His remarks correctly and accurately described the industry’s commitment.”
Obviously, DeParle was recalibrated. It just would not do to actually admit Obama is wrong, after all.
But I rather doubt that the health care leaders would be publicly repudiating Obama’s statements if they were not really worried about the way what they did promise is being reported by Obama.
As I understand it, they promised to “do their part” to try to meet Obama’s goals. Which is far less than what Obama touted.
