On the Obameter, Part 1 - HEALTH CARE REFORM

What happened to Obama's campaign promise that health care reform proposals would be negotiated in full public view?

According to the the St. Petersburg Times, during his presidential campaign, Barack Obama made the following promise:

"I'm going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We'll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies -- they'll get a seat at the table, they just won't be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process."

But that's not actually happening.



For example, according to McClatchy Newspapers, the two biggest deals so far -- industry agreements to cut drug and hospital costs -- were reached in secret. (They even quote a prominent Senator saying: "[The negotiations] were private, yes.")

The St. Petersburg Times rates this a broken promise.

A politician breaking a campaign promise?

That's a big change!