Morning Meeting At he White House

Morning meeting with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Health Care:
Helen Thomas opened up with saying that “no one knows where you stand”. Mr. Gibbs answered that he was “standing right here”. Then he said he “would do this one more time.” Gibbs was then asked who had written about what the President said in the weekend town hall meeting about the public option. He said they were not giving up on the public plan and that the President will work with anyone in any party who wants to work constructively on health care reform. He said that they continued to be helpful that they can get bi-partisan support. He also said that the bi-partisan route was up to Republicans and that the President had spoken to the Senate Finance Committee. He said they had an 80% agreement on what is going on. He disputed today’s New York Time’s “go it alone” story.

Gibbs also said that they wanted to see as many people on both sides of the aisle who want to deal with a problem that can’t be ignored. He said that what comes out of the House is not where the Senate may or may not start when crafting their bill and the differences would be decided in conference. He said they have several more weeks to go until they have a vote on this. Gibbs asked why on August 19th is there a declaration that there will be only 51 votes? When asked why the President doesn’t put his foot down, Gibbs said “I can’t see it but I bet his foot is down.” Asked about why he isn’t having a summit, Gibbs answered that if it makes us all better to call it that…. we’ll call it the pre-fishing summit. Gibbs said the President would orbit the Moon if he thought it would help.

President’s Vacation:
The President has nothing scheduled in terms of speeches etc during his vacation and they would rely on surrogates.

Michael Smerconish:
Will be doing part of his show tomorrow at the White House and will take calls with the President. Gibbs said that “he was someone who the President had communicated with during the campaign and that they had an invitation to do the show. No other hosts had been considered.