On Face the Nation this morning, President Barack Obama told Bob Schieffer that “I don’t think I’ve promised too much at all” on health care reform.
“Everybody acknowledges this is a problem,” the President said, adding that “standing still is not an option.”
As for the role of race in criticism of the President’s reform proposals, Obama said there are bigger reasons for the opposition he faces. “What’s driving passions right now is that health care has become a proxy for a broader set of issues about how much government should be involved in our economy,” he said.
It doesn’t help, the President said, that media attention often goes to the loudest, meanest voices.
They focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can’t get enough of conflict. It’s catnip to the media right now. So the easiest way to get 15 minutes of fame is to be rude to somebody.
Just as he did on This Week, Obama tried to deflect criticism that he’ll have to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for health care reform while acknowledging that “we are going to have to find some additional sources of revenue.”
As for Afghanistan, the President wouldn’t say if or when he would ask for more U.S. troops, but did say he’s willing to do whatever’s necessary to achieve his “core goal, which is to dismantle, defeat [and] destroy Al Qaeda and its allies that killed Americans and are still plotting to kill Americans.”
