TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Obama in 2003:

I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan.

The Obama White House in 2009:

…There are a lot of very deceiving headlines out there right now, such as this one — take a look at this one. This one says, ‘Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will Eliminate PRIVATE Insurance.’ Well, nothing can be farther from the truth. You know the people who always try to scare people whenever you try to bring them health-insurance reform are at it again. And they’re taking sentences and phrases out of context, and they’re cobbling them together to leave a very false impression.

The only thing misleading about the video mentioned is the title — Obama doesn’t really explain how his plan will eliminate private insurance. But the video quotes from his 2003 speech accurately — Obama said he supports single-payer health care, or a system where the government pays for everyone’s health insurance. This, by definition, means the elimination of private insurance.

Whether you support a single-payer system or not, the administration is being incredibly dishonest. Not that long ago, Obama supported eliminating private insurance, but now the administration claims anyone who says the Democrats are attempting to create a single-payer system are fear-mongering, trying to make them look like they are crazy.

The honest thing to do would be to address Obama’s past position directly. Instead, all the administration has done is smear those that point out his own inconvenient past.