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C-SPAN Challenges Congress to Open Health Care Talks to TV Coverage
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01 … v-coverage
This format would seem ideal for closed-door meetings, which congressional Democrats have used many times to figure out sensitive provisions in the health care bill -- though President Obama pledged during the campaign to open up health care talks to C-SPAN's cameras.
"That's what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are," Obama said at a debate against Hillary Clinton in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2008.
Lamb urged Congress in his letter to fling open the doors in the final stretch of the negotiations.
The last health plan failed because of the secrecy factor. That's why Obama opportunistically threw that fact in Hillary's face. But rhetoric during a campaign certainly, apparently, can't be considered a promise???
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By now it's almost trite to complain that President Obama repeatedly has broken his campaign pledge to "broadcast [health care] negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are." That doesn't make the complaint invalid. For legislation that could so profoundly and personally affect the daily lives of every American, Congress and the White House should be more transparent and more accessible than ever before. Instead, the process has been secretive and sordid throughout.
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