Obama, Bingaman Talk Health Care at the White House

Sen. Jeff Bingaman and a slew of other lawmakers met President Obama in the East Room of the White House this afternoon to start brainstorming on how to improve the nation’s health care system. The meeting was billed as a “Health Care Summit” and also included doctors, health care officials, etc.

Scroll down to see a subpar picture of the president snapped from my cell phone.

I walked two blocks from my office at the National Press Building to the White House to hear what the president had to say. The gist was that health costs must come under control or they will break America’s bank. Of course, some Republicans argue that Obama is already doing that with his stimulus and budgets. Anyway, here’s one of his key quotes:

“The same soaring costs that are straining our families’ budgets are sinking our businesses and eating up our government’s budget too,” Obama said. “At the fiscal summit we held here last week, the one thing on which everyone agreed was that the greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security, though that is a significant challenge; and it’s not the investments we’ve made to rescue our economy; it is the skyrocketing cost of health care.” 

He also said all options for reform are on the table, “except the status quo.” He said anyone trying to preserve the status quo “will not prevail.”

After Obama’s brief speech, the group of maybe 200 broke into smaller groups to start brainstorming at the Old Executive Office Building next door. I caught up with Bingaman on the way over.

“I  just want to hear what everyone has to say and see where we go from here,” Bingaman said. “The president is right to call us together and try to get the momentum building and try to make some major change.”

Here’s a picture of the president I snapped with my cell phone. It’s kind of blurry, but you get the, um, picture.