Here's the section of today's town hall meeting in which Obama forgot that he was the one insisting the 1,000-page bill be passed before August recess. A man who is clearly an Obama supporter nonetheless asks the president if a month or so to read the bill might neutralize a central argument against the bill. Obama helpfully offers that, "Hey, August is plenty of time to read it!" Which is true, but ironic coming from the man who didn't want anyone to have August to read it:
Q This is more a political question than a technical question. I wondered -- I hear a lot, especially the opposition, complaining that they don't have time to read these thousands of pages in your health care plan. And I was wondering, on the one hand, we've been in this -- all this has existed for a long time; what difference does a couple of months, so we allow them to read it? And we just, you know, we just don't hear that anymore. THE PRESIDENT: Good. Well, let me just say this about sort of the politics of health care reform. First of all, this bill, even in the best-case scenario, will not be signed -- we won't even vote on it probably until the end of September or the middle of October. We're just trying to get it -- all these different bills out of committee. So that means that any one of these senators, if they want to take this bill home with them during the August recess, they would have more than enough time to read it. (Applause.)
Later in the event, Obama's evident relaxation in a campaign-style format led him to yuk and colloquialize his way into a promise he probably can't keep:
THE PRESIDENT: I'm for the public option. (Applause.) So I just want everybody to know, Congress will have time to read the bill. They will have time to debate the bill. They will have all of August to review the various legislative proposals. When we come back in September, I will be available to answer any question that members of Congress have. If they want to come over to the White House and go over line by line what's going on, I will be happy to do that. (Applause.) We are not trying to hide the ball here. We're trying to get this done. But the American people can't wait any longer. (Applause.) They want action this year. I want action this year. And with your help, we're going to make it happen, North Carolina.
Line by line? Let's remember that last week, the president did not even know if the bill outlawed private insurance, which is a pretty important issue in any health care plan. Mark Knoller wonders whether the president will regret this particular promise:
House and Senate members seeking to indefinitely delay passage of the health care measure, could tie Mr. Obama up for months if not years, going over the bill line-by-line. We wouldn't subject detainees at Guantanamo to that level of cruelty. Plus, if you've taken a look at the bill (here), it defies comprehension. Here's just a single sentence from Section 112 of the House measure: "The requirements of sections 2711 (other than subsections (c) and (e)) and 2712 (other than paragraphs (3), and (6) of subsection (b) and subsection (e)) of the Public Health Service Act, relating to guaranteed availability and renewability of health insurance coverage, shall apply to individuals and employers in all individual and group health insurance coverage, whether offered to individuals or employers through the Health Insurance Exchange, through any employment-based health plan, or otherwise, in the same manner as such sections apply to employers and health insurance coverage offered in the small group market, except that such section 2712(b)(1) shall apply only if, before nonrenewal or discontinuation of coverage, the issuer has provided the enrollee with notice of non-payment of premiums and there is a grace period during which the enrollees has an opportunity to correct such nonpayment." Can we go over line four again, Mr. President?
I, for one, would like to bask in the transparency of all the Blue Dogs and Republicans marching up to the White House with their lists of questions and their video cameras for these tutorials by the president. Now, that would be informative, but not in quite the way the president believes. He better do a lot of beach reading this month.