Transcript of: Romer: Insurance taxes not off table
MR. GREGORY:
I want to ask you about a few items in the news. One is
health care
, the administration signaling that the president is now open to taxing employer
health benefits
for employees. This was something that
John McCain
proposed in the election and President, then- candidate
Obama
was opposed to it. Is he changing his view?
DR. ROMER:
He is still opposed to it. He certainly was very critical and very skeptical of it. It is certainly not in our proposal. And we have proposed other ways to, to deal with
health care
and to fund it. And so no, it is not something that he supports.
MR. GREGORY:
So the reports about him now considering this being open to it are wrong?
DR. ROMER:
He -- his, his, his skepticism from the campaign absolutely is, is still there.
MR. GREGORY:
So he's opposed to it. It's off the table.
DR. ROMER:
He is absolutely opposed to it and skeptical and...
MR. GREGORY:
You're not saying it's off the table.
DR. ROMER:
I, I'm not going to say one way or the other that...
MR. GREGORY:
But he, he might consider it, in other words?
DR. ROMER:
I think what he has said from the beginning is there are no such thing as Democratic and Republican ideas, there are just good ideas. He will listen to good ideas. This is not one that he has, has ever supported.
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