Appearing on Thursday's NBC Today, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd matter-of-factly declared that ObamaCare was always going to be a bad deal for some Americans: "There are always winners and losers in any piece of legislation. There is a small number of losers in here, if you want to count losing as in having to pay more for your health insurance....That was always the intention, that was the only way you could make the law work..." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Todd acknowledged that was not the way President Obama sold the law, but avoided calling it a lie: "...this goes to the problem that the President brought upon himself, when they didn't make this clear." On the March 3, 2010 Nightly News, just weeks before the passage of ObamaCare, Todd touted the President's deception: "If this reform works the way the White House hopes it does, the bottom line is simple, it should be easier for you to get health insurance and harder for you to lose it."
On Thursday, Todd's sudden candor was prompted by co-host Matt Lauer: "Senate Democrats say they want to bring that to a vote, a plan that would allow people who might lose their plans under ObamaCare to keep their existing plans....can you tinker with a part of the program and not impact the viability of the entire program numbers-wise?"
Todd cited the "architect" of ObamaCare, MIT professor Jonathan Gruber: "He essentially argues, 'No. You know, if you start messing around with this and trying to grandfather in some of these folks, you undermine the whole premise of the law.'"
Here is a transcript of the November 14 exchange:
7:07AM ET
(...)
LAUER: And Senate Democrats say they want to bring that to a vote, a plan that would allow people who might lose their plans under ObamaCare to keep their existing plans. The President says he's working on a fix. Chuck, can you tinker with a part of the program and not impact the viability of the entire program numbers-wise?
TODD: I've talked to one of the architects of this plan, Jonathan Gruber, he's the MIT professor, he basically helped put together the Massachusetts version of this and the national version of it. And he essentially argues, "No. You know, if you start messing around with this and trying to grandfather in some of these folks, you undermine the whole premise of the law." The whole way insurance companies can make it affordable for somebody who has a pre-existing condition is if they are forcing these younger and healthier people essentially to pay a little bit more.
You know, that's the way – and this goes to the problem that the President brought upon himself, when they didn't make this clear. There are always winners and losers in any piece of legislation. There is a small number of losers in here, if you want to count losing as in having to pay more for your health insurance. Healthy people are going to pay more. That was always the intention, that was the only way you could make the law work if you wanted to bring down the cost for sick people.
LAUER: Chuck Todd in Washington on this story. Chuck, thanks so much.
TODD: You got it.
