On This Week With George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, President Obama and the host had more than one testy exchange over health care reform.
Pushing Obama from the outset to say whether the plan constituted a tax on Americans by requiring that they have health insurance, Stephanopoulos at one point actually read the President the dictionary definition of “tax.” Obama laughed.
“The fact that you looked up Merriam’s dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now,” the President said, adding that “my critics say everything’s a tax increase. My critics say I’m taking over every sector of the economy.”
“I absolutely reject that notion.”
Instead, the President compared requiring Americans to have health insurance to similar requirements on car insurance. “Nobody considers that a tax increase,” he said. “People say to themselves, ‘That is a fair way to make sure if you hit my car, I’m not covering all the costs.'”
On the topic of race — and what, if any, role it plays in opposition to the President — Obama said:
Are there some people who don’t like me because of my race? I’m sure there are. Are there some people who vote for me only because of my race? There are probably some of those too.
But for the “overwhelming” majority of Americans, Obama said, the key issue in the health reform debate is how this plan would help them. There are also a number of ideological issues about the size, role and efficiency of government, the President said.
Still, Obama characterized the proposed reform as “very modest” and said “this isn’t a radical plan.”
As for the ongoing ACORN scandal, the President said the video of conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute to solicit advice — successfully — from ACORN about how to conceal the woman’s source of income was “certainly inappropriate.”
However, Obama cautioned, “this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to.”
Late Update: Here’s a video.
