In a March 6 Washington Post article, reporter Ceci Connolly reported that President Obama “gently sparred with Sen. Charles E. Grassley [R-IA]” at a March 5 summit “over his campaign proposal to offer a government-sponsored insurance option to people who do not have coverage” and that Grassley “argued that the 'public option' would make government 'an unfair competitor' to private insurers.” But Connelly's characterization of their exchange as one of “gentl[e] sparr[ing]” is undermined by comments by Obama that she omitted. Connolly quoted Obama stating, “The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and helps keep the private sector honest”; however, she did not report that Obama also stated, “I recognize, though, the fear that if a public option is run through Washington and there are incentives to try to tamp down costs or at least what shows up on the books, and you've got the ability in Washington apparently to print money, that private insurance plans might end up feeling overwhelmed. So I recognize that there's that concern. I think it's a serious one and a real one, and we'll make sure that it gets addressed.”

The Washington Post reported:

Obama gently sparred with Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) over his campaign proposal to offer a government-sponsored insurance option to people who do not have coverage.

Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, argued that the “public option” would make government “an unfair competitor” to private insurers.

“The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and helps keep the private sector honest,” Obama replied.

For many, the feelings of goodwill were all too familiar. Sen. Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) said he recalled agreeing with “absolutely everything” Bill Clinton said in his 1993 address to Congress, while agreeing with almost nothing in his actual plan.

Responding to Grassley's statement, “So the only thing that I would throw out for your consideration -- and please don't respond to this now because I'm asking you just to think about it -- there's a lot of us that feel that the public option, that the government is an unfair competitor, and that we're going to get an awful lot of crowd out. And we have to keep what we have now strong and make it stronger,” Obama stated, “The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps give -- keep the private sector honest because there's some competition out there.” But this was not the extent of Obama's comments. He further stated: “I recognize, though, the fear that if a public option is run through Washington and there are incentives to try to tamp down costs or at least what shows up on the books, and you've got the ability in Washington apparently to print money, that private insurance plans might end up feeling overwhelmed. So I recognize that there's that concern. I think it's a serious one and a real one, and we'll make sure that it gets addressed, partly because I assume it'll be very -- be very hard to come out of committee unless we're thinking about it a little bit. And so we want to make sure that that's something that we pay attention to.”

From the March 5 health care forum:

GRASSLEY: Mr. President, thank you very much for this opportunity.

From our breakout session, you probably get the idea that it's pretty easy to get done. We know it's very difficult to get done, but without that sort of feeling starting out, nothing would get done. And I think you served with us in the Senate long enough to know that Max Baucus and I have a pretty good record of working out bipartisan things.

Neither one of us, or neither one of our parties, get everything that they want, but we've had a pretty good record. I think only two bills in eight years that haven't been bipartisan. And so we have a process in place that has hearings coming it. It has a process of getting roundtable discussions, getting stakeholders in, getting authorities in.

We expect to have work on this in the committee in June. Maybe it will sound a little ambitious, but if you aren't ambitious on a major problem like this that the country decides needs to be done, it'll never get done.

So the only thing that I would throw out for your consideration -- and please don't respond to this now because I'm asking you just to think about it -- there's a lot of us that feel that the public option, that the government is an unfair competitor, and that we're going to get an awful lot of crowd out. And we have to keep what we have now strong and make it stronger.

OBAMA: OK. Let me just -- I'm not going to respond definitively. The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps give -- keep the private sector honest because there's some competition out there.

That's been the thinking.

I recognize, though, the fear that if a public option is run through Washington and there are incentives to try to tamp down costs or at least what shows up on the books, and you've got the ability in Washington apparently to print money, that private insurance plans might end up feeling overwhelmed.

So I recognize that there's that concern. I think it's a serious one and a real one, and we'll make sure that it gets addressed, partly because I assume it'll be very -- be very hard to come out of committee unless we're thinking about it a little bit. And so we want to make sure that that's something that we pay attention to.