Obama's broken promise on health care talks

By Bill Adair
Published on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 6:44 p.m.

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"President Obama has broken his pledge to the American people to be transparent throughout (health care reform negotiations)."

Charlie Crist, Tuesday, January 5th, 2010.

Ruling: True | Details

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The bulk of the negotiations over the health care bill have followed Washington tradition and taken place behind closed doors.

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama tried to set himself apart from then-Sen. Hillary Clinton by vowing to hold discussions about health care reform in the open -- televised on C-SPAN. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that Clinton had headed a health care task force during her husband's presidency and held many key meetings behind closed doors.

Obama's pledge became Promise No. 517 in our Obameter database. We rated it Broken because a large share of the discussions over health care reform have followed a long Washington tradition: They've occurred in private meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

We rated the promise last July, but we've seen nothing to change our minds. Although there has been plenty of debate on the House and Senate floors, the real negotiations have occurred in private. That's how Washington works.

So we didn't have to look far when Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who is in a tough race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, said Obama had broken his promise. Crist earns a True .