In President Obama's most recent weekly remarks on Saturday, he once again addressed several "outrageous myths" being disseminated about the health insurance reform efforts.

There should be an honest debate, the president said, "...not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are."

Obama tackled the claims one by one in his remarks. One such claim is that illegal immigrants will receive health insurance under reform. The president refuted this contention, saying, "Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has never even been on the table." He also affirmed that the claim that coverage for abortions would be mandated under reform is false--there will be no change on the current ban on using tax dollars for abortions.

The President then addressed perhaps the most notorious claim about so-called "death panels". Obama stated that the concept was "...an offensive notion to me and to the American people. These are phony claims meant to divide us." He also discounted that reform will initiate a government takeover of health care. "I no sooner want government to get between you and your doctor than I want insurance companies to make arbitrary decisions about what medical care is best for you, as they do today...If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period."

In the White House press briefing this week, Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said that while the president is on vacation this week, he is still getting daily briefings and his team is "still working very hard to find some bipartisan consensus to move forward."

In response to a question regarding suggestions that health care reform should perhaps be started over, Burton said, "The president feels like the process we've got moving forward is a good one. We've already gotten the support of doctors and nurses, hospitals. AARP has said that they are for health care reform. The president feels good about the progress that we've been able to make, and we're going to continue to move towards getting a bill done and getting health care reform passed this year."

Meanwhile, some senators debated the contents of health reform and tactics in getting it passed. On Sunday's Meet the Press, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) stated strongly that a public option is vital to health reform, and also said that Congress is working hard for a bipartisan bill, but if upon Congress' return in the Fall there is no bipartisan bill, "...we'll never be able to meet the goal of having a bill signed into law by the end of the year." Therefore, the Senator said, Democrats are considering alternatives such as getting 60 Democratic votes and perhaps a couple of Republicans, but also options such as a Senate budget reconciliation procedure, which only needs 51 votes. Sen. Schumer said this was because the Republican leadership in the House and Senate seem less and less likely to support a bipartisan bill.

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), also on the program, responded that the Democrats were considering "legislation-killing approaches that, literally, Republicans cannot go along with," and that reconciliation would be an "abuse of process."

The reconciliation procedure under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 has been used for budget bills in contention to be passed by simple majority, without a filibuster. However, under the "Byrd Rule" they may have to demonstrate that a provision is not extraneous and does not produce a change in outlays or revenues "merely incidental" to the non-budgetary components of the provision.

Adapted in part from the president's weekly remarks and press briefings by the White House.

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