By NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON,Politico
Obama’s CSPAN lie is following him
President Barack Obama might just wish he had opened even one health care meeting to the C-SPAN cameras.
The issue is starting to follow him around.
Once again Tuesday,he faced a question about it,from a high school student in Nashua,N.H.,who asked him to grade the White House’s transparency efforts,given the fact that all the health care discussions have been behind closed doors.
Obama said that after the House and Senate bills moved forward,“it is true that I then met with the leaders …to see what differences needed to be resolved. And that wasn’t on C-SPAN.”
“I made that commitment,and I probably should have put it on C-SPAN,” he said,but added that lawmakers might not have been as honest and candid if they were being televised.
During the presidential campaign,Obama had famously promised to open up health care negotiations to C-SPAN so that voters would know who was arguing for what. Instead,the backroom tussles over the bill happened well out of sight of the public,just as they always have in Washington.
This student may have a political future,obviously a smart,well informed young person. My hats off to this student.