Teagan Goddard points out on the Political Wire the contradictory statements made by President Obama on the subject of a single payer health care system:

“I have not said that I was a single payer supporter.”
– President Obama, at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire this afternoon.

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan.”
– Obama, at a Senate campaign rally in 2003.

At Obama’s “town hall” (I use that term loosely here) today a “Republican” asked the President if he was in favor of single payer health care system. Obama replied, “I have not said that I was a single payer supporter.” He went on to explain that, “a single payer plan is like Medicare for all, with government being the only entity that pays for health care,” but that he was not in favor of that because it would “be too disruptive.”

Well that’s all fine and good, but as Goddard pointed out, there is video evidence that directly contradicts the President’s claim:

In the video, Obama says:

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. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately.

Pay attention to that last sentence. This is a step by step process. Obama can stand up there now, despite what he has said on video before, and say, “Hey, I’m not proposing a single payer plan, I just want a “public option” available for all Americans.” However, this is the foot in the door that the Democrats would need to begin the short journey to single payer. Don’t take my word for it, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, from the Democratic House Leadership, and Jacob Hacker, a liberal professor who shopped this plan around to Democrat health care “reform” advocates.

In this video Rep. Jan Schakowsky recounts a conversation she had with an insurance industry spokesman:

“A public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and lead to single-payer.” The audience cheers. “My single-payer friends,” she goes on, “he was right.” Later she adds, “This is not a principled fight. This is a fight about strategy for getting there, and I believe we will.”

Also in that video, you’ll see Hacker talk about the step by step approach:

“Someone told me this was a Trojan horse for single-payer. Well, it’s not a Trojan horse, right? It’s just right there. I’m telling you. We’re going to get there, over time, slowly, but we’ll move away from reliance on employer-based health insurance as we should, but we’ll do it in a way that we’re not going to frighten people into thinking they’re going to lose their private insurance.”

So when Obama says that he’s not a single payer supporter, keep in mind… he’s lying. Not only has he said that he is, but he and the Democrats building this legislation in Congress know that they can use the “public option” as their leverage for a complete takeover of the countries entire health care sector.