Pelosi pushes back against Obama

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, apparently irritated with White House pressure to accept the Senate’s version of the health reform bills that will be negotiated in conference committee, took a jab at President Barack Obama Tuesday, questioning his commitment to his 2008 campaign promises:

Pelosi emerged from a meeting with her leadership team and committee chairs in the Capitol to face an aggressive throng of reporters who immediately hit her with C-SPAN’s request that she permit closed-door final talks on the bill to be televised.

A reporter reminded the San Francisco Democrat that in 2008, then-candidate Obama opined that all such negotiations be open to C-SPAN cameras.

“There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail,” quipped Pelosi, who has no intention of making the deliberations public.

Hopefully Nancy Pelosi’s verbal jab at President Obama will translate into her fighting against what will no doubt be a strong effort to push something as close to the Senate’s version of health care reform as possible through as the final health care reform bill.

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14 thoughts on “Pelosi pushes back against Obama

  1. Hopefully it will translate into her not reconciling the health care bills out of sight, feeding the right right media ammunition. Second-tier Rush Limbaugh (Mark Steyn?) was talking about it yesterday… I understand why she doesn’t want a conference committee, which could be used by the GOP to further stall and demonize the bill, though I’m not that familiar with the rules of conf comms. If this looks like a back room deal, it’s not going to make the Dems look any better.

  2. Um, excuse me? Hopefully it will translate into bringing to the forefront that Barack Obama broke a whole lot of campaign promises. Where’s the transparency?

      1. I’ll give the Obama Administration some credit: I think they have released data in a number of areas where those before did not, and they’ve certainly shown a lot more savvy in providing data in formats that people can actually use (at least us geeks). If we hold the President to the standard that has come before, it’s at least a step in the right direction. Now if we hold him to his promises – that’s where he gets a gigantic red F.

    1. Hopefully it will translate into President Obama asserting himself and actually getting involved. Not that I don’t disagree with a lot of his ideas, but letting a crazy person dictate things is frightening.

  3. If Congress chooses to turn this into a backroom negotiation, is there really anything the President can do about it? He could call for more transparency all he wants but would Pelosi listen?

    1. I don’t know, Jim, he seemed pretty confident that he could do it when he was promising it during the campaign.

      1. Wasn’t it something to the effect of, “I will not pass a piece of legislation if it contains earmarks” ?

        Especially with his own party controlling both houses, the President can certainly influence the bills that come before him.

        I still find it very strange that President Obama took up the mantle for health care reform – it was perhaps his biggest issue as a candidate and it’s his legacy at stake – and yet he has been so unwilling to have much involvement. Basically it’s been, “give me a bill to sign” but not shown much concern over what is actually in the bill.

        1. “I still find it very strange that President Obama took up the mantle for health care reform – it was perhaps his biggest issue as a candidate and it’s his legacy at stake – and yet he has been so unwilling to have much involvement.”

          Locke, that’s been my biggest issue with President Obama when it comes to health care reform – his unwillingness to stand up and actually say what specifically he wanted to see included in any health care reform legislation. The fact that he’s spent most of the debate on the sidelines really sticks in my craw.

          1. It’s really just plain weird – rather inexplicable really.

            Is it that he’s just extra cautious because of fear that a failure would also be tagged on him – ie let them go, if it fails it’s Congress, if it succeeds it’s his? Is it some sort of principled stand on not stepping Congress’s toes? I find that hard to believe.

            For sure, it’s a major departure from the passionate advocacy that won over the left, many in the middle and more than a few on the right.

            1. Locke, I think he hasn’t taken a strong stand because he didn’t want to be tied to a failed health care reform initiative.

              1. I agree Zach, but I would think he knows that health care reform is Obamacare, whether is passes or not.

                Also, my “I’ll give you that” post below is in reference to forgot’s post about Obama’s confidence in the campaign, to clarify.

                1. Yes, Obama is going to own health care, win or lose. The President usually gets cedit or blame no matter what (e.g., the economy). The only way he can blame Congress is when it is held by a different party.

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