0 with his critics with whom is empty handed? can he win the argument he alone is offering a solution to the country s health care challenge after decades of debate, log jam, and failure. can he win this historic test? howard fineman and jonathan gruber. gruber was an adviser to congress and the president on the affordable care act. anyway, president obama has taken fire for breaking a promise he made to the public that everyone can keep their health insurance plans if they like them. the president made no excuse today for what he said. he announced a move to make good on that promise. here he is. i completely get how upsetting this could be for a lot of americans particularly after assurances they heard from me that if they had a plan that they like, they could keep it. and to those americans, i hear you loud and clear. i said that i would do everything we can to fix this problem, and today i m offering an idea that will help do it. he s got to basically reargue this whole thing ove
0 he s got to basically reargue this whole thing over again. that s something he s good at. well said. the president reserved his strongest language for those who have made it their sole mission to kill this law. let s listen to this. when i see sometimes folks up on capitol hill and republicans in particular who have been suggesting, you know, repeal, repeal, let s get rid of this thing, i keep asking what is it you want to do? are you suggesting the status quo was working? because it wasn t. it wasn t working in the individual market and it certainly wasn t working for the 41 million people who didn t have health insurance. i make no apologies for us taking this on. because somebody sooner or later had to do it. john gruber, give us a reading. you know the president, you know the policy development that led to this success. we ve got a health care law. we need an implementation. it seems like the president s rejoining the situation, rejoining the fight. tell me how he works in
that does not mean the government does not have a role. of course it has a role. the role of a referee. referees run up and down the sides of a football game and throw a penalty when something is wrong, but they are not the quarterback. what i put forth over the years, it started back in 1992. i worked with a guy who is now the governor of ohio. we started a program that is now called help savings accounts. every dollar your employer spends on insurance is not taxable to you. if your employer gives you that same amount of money pays it to you, i should say. you have to go out and buy your own insurance. you have to do with with after tax and dollars. so, the idea of having a system where we treat everybody the same, and so we give tax credits to the uninsured so we can provide an equality in the tax code about how everyone is treated. i supported system that allows that. that is why i would get rid of the existing tax code. go two ways. 10%, and 28%. why at that level? beca
morning. see you soon. good morning. al qaeda connection. president obama said the suspect in the christmas day troer attempt apparently got training and explosives from the terrorist group. discharged. rush limbaugh is release friday hawaii hospital and speaking about what may have caused his chest pain. the wife of tiger woods is spotted at a ski resort as her husband faces another set back at home this january 2nd, 2010. announcer: from nbc news, this is today with lester holt and amy robach live from studio 1 a in rockefeller plaza. good morning and welcome to today on this saturday morning. i m lester holt. i m amy robach. nice to be next to you after a couple of weeks. the new year has changed. 2010. happy new year to all of you. we have news on the suspect in the attempted bombing of the jetliner on christmas day. the president said it appears he joined the al qaeda affiliate in yemen which trained him and directed him to attack the plane headed for t