Although the audience mostly lobbed softballs (including one woman who just wanted to read the preamble to the Montana constitution), President Obama got a few of the tough questions he was reportedly hoping for at today’s town hall in Montana.
One man, who identified himself as a “proud NRA member,” asked how Obama planned to pay for health care reform.
“All we get is bull,” he said. “You can’t tell how you’re gonna pay for this … the only way to get it is to raise our taxes.”
Obama responded that reform, which will cost about $800 to $900 billion over 10 years, will be two-thirds paid for by improving efficiency and cutting subsidies to insurance companies. The other third, he said, would come from raising taxes — really, lowering deductions — for people making more than $250,000 a year.
“There’s nothing wrong with me paying a little bit more to help people that have a little bit less,” he said.
Another one came after Obama specifically asked for someone who was “skeptical” of the reform plan. The questioner was an insurance salesman, and he asked why the president is trying to “vilify” health insurance companies.
“My intent is not to vilify the insurance companies,” Obama said. “We want to make sure the practices that are very tough on people, those practices change.”
He had, however, opened the town hall with remarks aimed against the insurance industry, saying, “We are held hostage … by health insurance companies.”
The ninth and last comment came from a woman who wanted Obama, “as a constitutional scholar,” to hear the preamble to the Montana constitution, which she read. Obama thanked her.
