During his address to the joint session of Congress, President Obama declared: "Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions." Does the current House bill's language conflict with Obama's pledge? At today's White House press briefing, Robert Gibbs wouldn't say. Obama is endorsing the House bill, which Nancy Pelosi wants to vote on this weekend, but the House bill currently allows the public option and federally subsidized plans to cover elective abortions. Today, Gibbs danced around questions from ABC's Jake Tapper, who asked why the House is still debating about coverage of abortion and providing coverage for illegal immigrants when Obama's made himself clear. Later, another reporter asked Gibbs:
Q: Is [Obama] urging [Pelosi] to compromise on the abortion issue, seeing as that is where the holdout Democrats are? MR. GIBBS: I don't know when the last time they spoke so -- I know that there's discussions about that going on, on Capitol Hill.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD followed up to ask if President Obama believes the current language is acceptable:
TWS: Does the President believe that the current language -- some Democrats have argued that the current language does bar federal funding of abortion because it would theoretically be through private [segregated] funding. Does he believe that that language fulfills his pledge or -- GIBBS: I'm not going to get involved in those -- TWS: Or does he think it needs to be changed in some way? GIBBS: I'm not going-- TWS: He doesn't have a position? GIBBS: I'm not going to do the negotiating here.
So the White House press secretary is unwilling to say if the bill's current language on abortion--which has been in the bill since it passed the Energy and Commerce committee this summer--fulfills Obama's pledge to ban funding elective abortions. But he was clear about his bottom line: "The president wants the House to pass this," Gibbs said. Even if the White House doesn't seem to be entirely clear about what "this" is. From Major Garrett's exchange with Gibbs today:
Garrett: Getting back to what Jake (Tapper) was asking about earlier, there are still some unresolved issues, so I'm just curious if the president supports it in its unresolved form or its resolved form? Gibbs: The president wants the House -- the president wants the House to pass this. The president wants the House to pass health care reform. ... Gibbs: I'm glad we got to... six questions to get to the fact that the president would travel from here to the House to say, "Pass the bill."