Obama Fires Back at Health Reform ‘Misrepresentations’

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• JIM LEHRER:

  President Obama tried to build new support for his health care plan today, and he charged opponents are trying to scare people. The president got a friendly reception at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

  Jeffrey Brown has our lead story report.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  This was Mr. Obama's first foray into New Hampshire as president, and he made clear he was ready to go on the offensive in what has become a rancorous national conversation on health care.

• U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

  Let's disagree over things that are real, not these wild misrepresentations that bear no resemblance to anything that's actually been proposed.

  (APPLAUSE)

  Because the way politics works sometimes is that people who want to keep things the way they are will try to scare the heck out of folks, and they'll create bogeyman out there that just aren't real.

  Now's the hard part, because the history is clear. Every time we come close to passing health insurance reform, the special interests fight back with everything they've got. They use their influence. They use their political allies to scare and mislead the American people. They start running ads. This is what they always do. We can't let them do it again, not this time, not now.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  While pushing his plan to expand coverage to the uninsured, the president today repeatedly sought to address the vast majority of Americans who already have insurance and worry about what change might bring, and he came down hard on insurance companies.

• U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

  Now, let me just start by setting the record straight on a few things I've been hearing out here about reform. Under the reform we're proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

  You will not be waiting in any lines. This is not about putting the government in charge of your health insurance. I don't believe anyone should be in charge of your health insurance decisions but you and your doctor.

  (APPLAUSE)

  I don't think government bureaucrats should be meddling, but I also don't think insurance company bureaucrats should be meddling.

  (APPLAUSE)

  That's the health care system I believe in.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  The president spoke to and took questions from a cordial crowd of 1,800, most of whom applied for tickets online. At one point, he had to ask for questions from those who don't like his plan.

• BARACK OBAMA:

  Somebody here who has a concern about health care that has not been raised or is skeptical and suspicious…

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Outside the high school where the meeting took place, the debate that's been growing around the country recently was more on display, its supporters chanting and opponents showing their ire.

• PROTESTOR:

  And I earn my health insurance. I pay for it with my money that I work very hard for.

• PROTESTOR:

  You're paying for it, so I hope you're happy, because he's enjoying your tax money…

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  Republican State Representative Shaun Doherty was on hand, too, armed with his own flow chart. He said it depicts the bureaucracy the president's plan would create.

  SHAUN DOHERTY, state representative: I just came out here to express my opposition to the current health care reform plan that the president is proposing. I support reforming health care, but this is not the reform that I support. And I think that it creates a giant bureaucracy and it would actually harm our health care system, not help it.

• JEFFREY BROWN:

  That opposition has become increasingly loud and combative as members of Congress meet with constituents in their home districts, as today with Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

• PROTESTOR:

  One day, God's going to stand before you, and he's going to judge you and the rest of your damn cronies up on the Hill!

  (APPLAUSE)

  And then you will get your just desserts. I'm leaving.

• SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, D-Penn.:

  OK, OK, OK, we've just — we've just had a — we've just had a demonstration of democracy.

• AD NARRATOR:

  President Obama's plan will end unfair insurance…