President Obama’s staged health care media blitz on five Sunday shows didn’t all turn out to be made-up of puff ball questions from the pro-Obama selected news outlets.

The first to air the Friday taped interviews was ABC  on ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopoulos where Obama appeared  somewhat uncomfortable without his teleprompter, especially when asked about the government forcing people to spend money, and fining them if they don’t.   “How is that not a tax?” he was asked.

Obama said, “Well hold on a second, George.  Here – here’s what’s happening.  You and I are both paying $900, on average – our families – in higher premiums because of uncompensated care.  Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that.  That’s just piling on.

“If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances.  And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s . . .” (Who knocked down the teleprompter?)

Stephanopoulos said, “That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.”

Obama responded, “No, That’s not true, George,  The . . . for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.  What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to get auto insurance.  Nobody considers that a tax increase.”

Stephanopoulos was not buying that it was not a tax increase and went so far as to say that he looked up Tax in Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: “Tax – a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

Obama snapped back, “George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition.  I mean what . . .”

I personally don’t understand why Obama thought it was a stretch, but the contentious debate went on.

Stephanopoulos said “I wanted to check for myself.  But your critics say it is a tax increase.”

“My critics say everything is a tax increase.  My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that,” Obama said.

Well, I’m glad that he knows that his critics believe this, I hope he is not ignoring the fact that polls show most of the people also believe that he is taking over every sector of the economy.

But it didn’t end there, Stephanopoulos said, “But you reject that it’s a tax increase?”

“I absolutely reject that notion,” Obama said.

Stephanopoulos suggested they move on to Medicare, Obama said, “Good.”

But it didn’t seem to get any better.  Stephanopoulos suggested that Medicare plans put forth suggest that you are going to force people to lose coverage they now have citing Medicare advantage.

“Look, I understand that change is hard.  If what you’re saying is that people who are currently signed up for Medicare advantage are going to have Medicare and the same level of benefits, but they may not be having their insurer get a 14 percent premium, that’s absolutely true and will the insurers squawk? You bet.” Obama said.

Stephanopoulos said that Senator Nelson, a Democrat, said the plan was going to cause beneficiaries right now to lose what they have and that coverage would be dropped.  “No,” Obama said ” these folks are going to be able to get Medicare that is just as good, provides the same benefits, but we’re not subsidizing them for $18 billion a year.”

“So Senator Nelson, he wants to pass an amendment that shields anyone currently on Medicare advantage from any cuts.  Do you support that?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“George, I’m not going to be negotiating a particular provision of the bill, sitting down with you here right now.  What I am going to says is this: the basic principle that is indisputable is that we are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare that is not making people healthier.  I want to make sure that we’re using that money to actually make people healthier,” the President said.

“But if people lose their Medicare advantage?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“What I have said is we’re not going to take a dollar out of the Medicare trust fund.  We’re going to make sure that benefits are just as strong if not stronger.  We’re not going to subsidize insurance companies in ways that end up creating a situation that Medicare is actually weaker and has a less financial foundation, because right now, we’ve got eight years from now potentially Medicare going into the red, ” Obama said.

Obama has been in the public’s face 124 times on the subject of health care and still can’t serve up the specifics of a bill, because no one has one that can be agreed upon – even in his own party.

He believes he is the educator in chief but words failed him today without his teleprompter.

When it came to the ACORN videos revealed this week and the move by Congress to cut off funding, Obama played ignorant and claimed he didn’t follow it closely.

“How about funding for ACORN?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“You know, if – frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely.  I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money,” Obama said.

Mr. President, it’s $53 million that they received with the potential of $8.3 Billion to come  and you should be following it as closely as Medicare.  As a former community organizer and one that represented ACORN as an attorney in Chicago your veiled attempt to distance your self from the organization didn’t work.

Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut off funding for ACORN, Stephanopoulos said.

“You know, what  I Know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated, Obama said

So you’re not committing to – to cut off the federal funding?

“George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country.  It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to,” Obama said.

To be fair and balanced the Stephanopoulos Obama complete transcript can be read by going to the News of The Day section of this website.

While Obama may have expected a few puff balls from the media he selected for his staged health care media blitz  – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision – he didn’t get any from Stephanopoulos of ABC.