Obama Health Care Announcement - Dec 11, 2008

Transcript Text

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 00:23
    8 minutes

    (In progress) -- before we get into the
    subject of today's press conference, there are a couple of issues I'd
    like to address.
    Today we received more unsettling news about our economy.
    Jobless claims are now the highest they've been in 26 years, with more
    than 570,000 people filing for unemployment benefits for the -- for
    the very first time. And this news comes at a moment when our auto
    industry is struggling, threatening the jobs, health care and pensions
    of not just thousands of American autoworkers, but dealers, suppliers
    and others all across America.
    Now, I understand people's anger and frustration at the situation
    our auto companies find themselves in today. I raised concerns about
    the health of our auto industry a year-and-a-half ago, when I spoke to
    industry leaders in Detroit. I urged them to act quickly to adopt new
    technologies and a new business approach that would help them stay
    competitive in these changing times. And while they failed to move
    quickly enough towards these goals, at this moment of great challenge
    for our economy, we cannot simply stand by and watch this industry
    collapse. Doing so would lead to a devastating ripple effect
    throughout our economy.
    As I have said repeatedly, I believe our government should
    provide short-term assistance to the auto industry to avoid a collapse
    while holding the companies accountable and protecting taxpayer
    interests. The legislation in Congress right now is an important step
    in that direction, and I'm hopeful that a final agreement can be
    reached this week.
    I'm also aware of your interest in the matter of the Illinois
    Senate appointment. Let me say that I was as appalled and
    disappointed as anybody by the revelations earlier this week. I have
    never spoken to the governor on this subject. I am confident that no
    representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to
    this seat. I think the materials released by the U.S. attorney
    reflect that fact. I've asked my team to gather the facts of any
    contacts with the governor's office about this vacancy so that we can
    share them with you over the next few days.
    Finally on this matter, let me say that this Senate seat does not
    belong to any politician to trade; it belongs to the people of
    Illinois, and they deserve the best possible representation. They
    also deserve to know that any vacancy will be filled in an appropriate
    way so that whoever is sent to Washington is going to be fighting for
    the people of Illinois. I hope and expect that the leaders of the
    legislature will take these steps to ensure that this is so.
    I'd now like to turn to the topic of today's press conference.
    Over the past few weeks, Vice President Biden and I have announced key
    members of our economic team who are working as we speak to craft a
    recovery program that will save and create millions of jobs, and grow
    our struggling economy.
    Today, I'm pleased to announce two leading members of my health
    care team, whose work will be critical to those efforts, Senator Tom
    Daschle and Dr. Jeanne Lambrew.
    I've asked Tom to serve not just as my secretary of Health and
    Human Services, but also as my director of White House -- of my White
    House Office of Health Reform. As such, he will be responsible not
    just for implementing our health care plan, he will also be the lead
    architect of that plan. Jeanne will serve as deputy director of this
    office, working closely with Tom on these efforts.
    It is hard to overstate the urgency of this work. Over the past
    eight years, premiums have nearly doubled, and more families are
    facing more medical debt than ever before. Forty-five million fellow
    citizens have no health insurance at all. And day after day, we
    witness the disgrace of parents unable to take a sick child to the
    doctor, seniors unable to afford their medicines, people who wind up
    in emergency rooms because they have nowhere else to turn. Year after
    year, our leaders offer up detailed health care plans with great
    fanfare and promise, only to see them fail, derailed by Washington
    politics and influence peddling.
    This simply cannot continue. The runaway cost of health care is
    punishing families and businesses across our country. We're on an
    unsustainable course, and it has to change. The time has come -- this
    year, in this new administration -- to modernize our health care
    system for the 21st century: to reduce costs for families and
    businesses; and to finally provide affordable, accessible health care
    for every American.
    Now, some may ask how, at this moment of economic challenge, we
    can afford to invest in reforming our health care system. And I ask a
    different question: I ask, how we can afford not to?
    Right now, small businesses across America are laying people off
    or shutting their doors for good because of rising health care costs.
    Some of the largest corporations in America, including major American
    carmakers, are struggling to compete with foreign companies unburdened
    by these costs. Instead of investing in research and development,
    instead of expanding and creating new jobs, our companies are pouring
    more and more money into a health care system that is failing too many
    families. So let's be clear: if we want to overcome our economic
    challenges, we must also finally address our health care challenge.
    I can think of no one better suited to lead this effort than the
    man standing beside me today. Tom Daschle is one of America's
    foremost health care experts. He and Jeanne have written a
    groundbreaking book on the subject, filled with fresh ideas and
    creative solutions. And Tom's thinking on this issue is informed not
    just by statistics he's studied or policy papers he's read, but by his
    years representing the people of South Dakota, witnessing firsthand
    their struggles as hospitals closed, doctors were few and far between,
    and care was often out of reach.
    But Tom brings more than just great expertise to this task; he
    brings the respect he earned during his years of leadership in
    Congress. He knows how to reach across the aisle and bridge
    bipartisan divides. And he has the trust of folks from every angle of
    this issue: doctors, nurses and patients; unions and businesses;
    hospitals and advocacy groups -- all of whom will have a seat at the
    table as we craft our plan.
    And once we pass this legislation, I know I can rely on Tom to
    implement it effectively. A gifted manager, Tom is the original no-
    drama guy: known for speaking softly, but leading boldly; always
    treating his staff with respect, while demanding excellence and
    empowering them to deliver. And I know Tom will bring that same
    decency, graciousness and pragmatism to this new role.
    Tom could not have a better partner in this work than Jeanne
    Lambrew. Jeanne brings a depth and range of experience on health care
    that few can match. She's a leading thinker on this issue, nationally
    recognized for her research on Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care and
    the uninsured. She's a policy and budget expert, having served at a
    senior level at both the Office of Management and Budget and the
    National Economic Council. She helped lead the effort in the White
    House to create the Children's Health Insurance Program, and she
    helped craft the president's Medicare reform plan and long-term care
    initiative.
    And like Tom, Jeanne has a personality perfectly suited to
    reaching out and building consensus. She listens. She treats people
    well. She, like Tom, believes, as Tom put it in his farewell address
    to the Senate, that "The politics of common ground will not be found
    on the far right or on the far left. That's not where most Americans
    live. We will only find it in the firm middle ground of common sense
    and shared values."
    That's not where most Americans live. We will only find it in the
    firm middle ground of common sense and shared values."
    I could not agree more, and I look forward to working with Tom
    and Jeanne in the months and years ahead.
    With that, let me ask Tom to step forward and say a few words.

  • MR. DASCHLE

    At 08:43
    3 minutes

    Thank you very much, Mr. President-elect.
    It is a great honor to be nominated to work on an issue that is
    so close to my heart, leading an organization that touches so many
    lives at a time that there is so much at stake.
    There is no question that fixing health care is, and has been for
    many years, our largest domestic policy challenge. We have the most
    expensive health care system in the world, but are not the healthiest
    nation in the world. Our growing costs are unsustainable, and the
    plight of the uninsured is unconscionable.
    Addressing our health care challenges will not only mean
    healthier and longer lives for millions, it will also make American
    companies more competitive, address the cause of half of all of our
    personal bankruptcies and foreclosures, and help pull our economy out
    of its current tailspin.
    That is why it is so exciting for me to take this dual role that
    you have outlined today, not just implementing reform, but helping to
    generate it. Whether it's administering Medicare and Medicaid,
    keeping our food and pharmaceuticals safe, researching the cures of
    tomorrow, or investing in prevention and wellness, a well-functioning
    Department of Health and Human Services can play a strong role in
    tackling the many health care challenges our country faces.
    And as director of the White House Office of Health Reform, I'm
    eager to work closely with the people from across the country to find
    a path forward that makes health care in this country as affordable
    and available as it is innovative.
    As you did so effectively in your campaign, Mr. President-elect,
    we're also going to bring the American people into this conversation
    and make health care reform an open and inclusive process that goes
    from the grassroots up. Over the next few weeks, we will be
    coordinating thousands of health care discussions in homes all across
    the country through our website, change.gov, where ordinary Americans
    can share their ideas about what's broken and how to fix it. I'll be
    attending some of these discussions, seeing the ideas generated by
    others and looking forward to reporting back to you on what we find.
    One of the first conversations I had with then-Senate candidate
    Obama was about the need for meaningful national health care reform.
    Today, I'm grateful to President-elect Obama for giving me the chance
    to make that a reality. I'm honored by your trust and I look forward
    to the opportunity to serve our nation once again.
    Thank you.

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 11:53
    7 seconds

    Thanks.
    Okay, with that, let me open it up to some questions. Let me
    start with Jackie. Jackie Calmes?

  • Question

    At 12:00
    2 seconds

    Senator -- President-elect -- you get used --

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 12:02
    1 second

    It's okay.

  • Question

    At 12:03
    19 seconds

    Given the -- in your statement, when you addressed the
    controversy over Governor Blagojevich, you did not repeat what your
    spokesman said yesterday about having him -- that he should resign.
    Why did you not? And could you tell us what contacts, if any, you
    know that your staff or any emissaries for you have had with
    prosecutors or the FBI?

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 12:22
    2 minutes

    Well, let me repeat a couple of things.
    Number one, I think like most of the people of Illinois, I was
    appalled and disappointed by what we heard in those transcripts.
    And you know, here in Illinois -- as is true, I think, across the
    country -- there is a tradition of public service where people are
    getting in it for the right reasons and to serve, but there's also a
    tradition where people view politics as a business. And part of the
    reason that I got into politics, ran for the State Senate, ran for the
    United States Senate and ultimately ran for the presidency is because
    we have to reclaim a tradition of public service that is about people
    and their lives and their hopes and their dreams and it isn't about
    what's in it for me. And I think the public trust has been violated.
    So let me be absolutely clear: I do not think that the governor
    at this point can effectively serve the people of Illinois. I -- the
    legislature is going down to Springfield to make a determination as to
    how to resolve this issue. I think they're going to come to the same
    conclusion. I hope that the governor himself comes to the conclusion
    that he can no longer effectively serve and that he does resign.
    In terms of our involvement, I'll repeat what I said earlier,
    which is I had no contact with the governor's office. I did not speak
    to the governor about these issues. That I know for certain. What I
    want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts that I
    may have -- that may have taken place between the transition office
    and the governor's office and we'll have those in the next few days
    and we'll present them.
    But what I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no
    involvement in any deal-making around my Senate seat. That I'm
    absolutely certain of. And that is -- that would be a violation of
    everything that this campaign has been about, and that's not how we do
    business.
    So, you know, I think that, like the rest of the people of
    Illinois, what I want to see is a quick resolution of this issue. I
    want to make sure that the next senator from the state of Illinois is
    carrying a forward tradition of service, that the next senator from
    Illinois is not tainted by what has taken place so far. I want to
    make sure that the next senator from Illinois is focused on health
    care jobs and all the struggles that the families of this state are
    going through.
    Okay. Phil Elliott, AP.

  • Question

    At 15:08

    Thank you, Mr. President-elect.

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 15:08

    Yeah.

  • Question

    At 15:08
    13 seconds

    Thank you.
    Have you or anyone in your transition or campaign been
    interviewed as it relates to the criminal complaint? And who is the
    transition adviser referenced in the complaint?

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 15:21
    55 seconds

    I have not been contacted by any federal
    officials and we have not been interviewed by them. As is reflected
    in the U.S. attorney's report, we were not, I think, perceived by the
    governor's office as amenable to any dealmaking. And you know, I
    won't quote back some of the things that were said about me, so --
    (chuckles, laughter) -- this is a family program, I know. So --
    (chuckles) -- you know, so beyond that, I'm not really certain where
    the investigation is going forward. I'll leave Mr. Fitzgerald to
    address those issues.
    Okay, Mike Flannery, CBS.

  • Question

    At 16:16
    26 seconds

    Mr. President-elect, could you shed any light on how it was
    that the governor got the impression that neither you nor Ms. Jarrett
    nor any of the people from your office were willing to play ball, and
    why he said those unrepeatable things about you and your -- and your
    staff?
    And a two-parter: We have the former -- the immediate former
    governor still moldering in the federal prison --

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 16:42
    1 second

    (Chuckles.)

  • Question

    At 16:43
    1 second

    -- there in Terre Haute. What's wrong with politics in
    Illinois?

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 16:44
    3 minutes

    Well, first of all, I -- I can't presume
    to know what was in the mind of the governor during this process, so I
    won't even speculate on that. All I can do is read what was in the
    transcripts, like the rest of you have read it, and shake my head.
    Now, with respect to Illinois, look, as I said, I -- I -- I -- I
    think in Illinois, as is true in American politics generally, there
    are two views of politics. There -- there is a view of politics that
    says you go in this for sacrifice and public service, and then there's
    a view of politics that says that this is a business and you're
    wheeling and dealing, and what's in it for me?
    And there are -- one thing I want to make sure everybody is
    mindful of. There are extraordinary traditions of public service
    coming out of Illinois, even after Abraham Lincoln. You know, you've
    got people like Paul Simon and Paul Douglas; our current senator, Dick
    Durbin, our senior senator; and many others, on both sides of the
    aisle, who have upheld the highest standards of ethics and have made
    enormous sacrifices to make sure that they're getting something done
    for the people of Illinois.
    But what you also have, I think, are habits and a culture that
    thinks of politics as a means of self-aggrandizement. That's exactly
    what has to change. I mean, this is -- if, in fact, various
    allegations end up proving to be true -- and I don't want to,
    obviously, prejudge all these issues -- this is sort of the far end of
    the spectrum of that business mentality of politics.
    But there are more subtle examples of it -- all right? -- that
    are within the lines of legality but still don't fulfill the spirit of
    service. We know in Washington that lobbyists have disproportionate
    influence. We know that in state houses and city councils all across
    America, there are times where people are not thinking about what's
    best for the public good but rather making narrow political
    calculations.
    And our whole campaign was about changing that view of politics
    and restoring a sense that when people of goodwill come together and
    are serious about confronting the challenges that we face, that not
    only can that be good policy, but you know what? It can be good
    politics, as well. It turns out that the American people are hungry
    for that. And you can get elected by playing it straight. You can
    get elected by doing the right thing. That's what I hope we have
    modeled in this campaign, and that's what I intend to model in my
    administration.
    Okay. Last question. Let's see. Debbie Charles of Reuters.

  • Question

    At 20:09
    6 seconds

    Thank you, Mr. President-elect. At the risk of annoying
    everyone, I'm going to change the subject to health care.

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 20:15
    1 second

    Good.

  • Question

    At 20:16
    19 seconds

    I wanted to ask you, how are you actually planning to fund
    your health care program? I know that it has been estimated that it
    could cost up to $65 billion. And you had planned originally to fund
    it through getting rid of the tax cuts to the wealthy, but that --
    apparently in the current economic situation, maybe that's not so
    reasonable. Are you still planning to do that, or how will you fund
    this?

  • PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA

    At 20:35
    4 minutes

    Well, let me start by talking about the
    issue of costs, because central to our -- my health care plan during
    the campaign, the starting point was how do we reduce costs, how do we
    gain savings that we can then put into prevention and health ITT and
    making sure that people who don't currently have coverage get
    coverage, and families who are seeing their premiums double get
    relief.
    And so what we wanted to make sure of was that any plan that we
    have starts with the premise that rising costs are unsustainable. We
    can't simply insure everybody under the current program without
    bankrupting the government or bankrupting businesses or states.
    So we're going to spend a lot of time on, how do you streamline
    and rationalize the system? And I think you can fairly expect that
    we're going to have some very aggressive initiative around things like
    health IT, around things like prevention, that reduce costs.
    We're also going to examine programs that I'm not sure are giving
    us a good bang for the buck. The Medicare Advantage program is one
    that I've already cited, where we're spending billions of dollars
    subsidizing insurance companies for a program that doesn't appreciably
    improve the health of seniors under Medicare. So our starting point
    is savings.
    Now, we are probably going to have to then find additional
    dollars to pay for some investments in the short term. Although my
    charge to my team is figuring out, how do we make sure that it pays
    for itself over, say, a 10-year period, so that we're actually saving
    money over the long term?
    And I have not made yet a determination, in terms of how we're
    going to deal with the rollback of the Bush tax cuts for the
    wealthiest Americans. That's part of the charge that I've given to my
    economic advisers, working in concert with our health care team.
    Today, we're going to be sitting down and starting to chart out,
    how does this process move forward? And my goal is to make sure that
    we have everybody involved -- doctors, nurses, patient advocates --
    that we have businesses, labor, everybody sitting around the table,
    Republicans and Democrats.
    This is going to be an open and transparent process. You
    remember, I made this promise during the course of the campaign.
    We're still going to have a bunch of this stuff on C-SPAN. We have --
    Tom has already initiated a process, where we're going to have groups
    around the country, who are convening to talk about what they think
    needs to be placed in a health care plan.
    My hope is to convene all the interested parties in Washington,
    sometime early in my administration, and make sure that we are moving
    forward, open-minded to all kinds of good ideas but insistent that the
    time is now to solve this problem.
    I've met too many families, during the course of the campaign,
    before the economic downturn, that are desperate. Close to 50 percent
    of family bankruptcies are cause because of a health care crisis. We
    know the strains that are being placed on businesses as a consequence
    of rising health care costs.
    So this has to be intimately woven into our overall health care
    -- our overall economic recovery plan. It's not something that we can
    sort of put off because we're in an emergency. This is part of the
    emergency. And what we want to do is make sure that our strategy
    reflects that truth.
    Okay. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.