The White House, Public Option and a Dog Whistle

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs again denied Tuesday the administration sent a signal of retreat from the government-financed insurance component of health care reform, popularly known as the public option.

"If it was a signal, it was a dog whistle that we started blowing about three months ago, and it just got picked up," Gibbs said at his morning, off-camera briefing with reporters. "It's crazy.  It's not a signal. It was what we've been saying for months on this. The goal is choice and competition."

Gibbs was asked how the president's reference to the public option at a Saturday town hall in Colorado as "not the entirety" of reform but "just one sliver, one aspect of it," comported with his July 18 radio/web address declaration that reform "must include"  a public option, Gibbs said:

"The goal is choice and competition, the preference is the public plan. Choice and competition are what we want to see as it relates to the private health insurance market."

Asked what accounted for the flurry of statements from House and Senate liberal Democrats on Monday defending the public option, Gibbs blamed reporters.

"They (lawmakers) read your all's stories that were an overreaction to what Secretary Sebelius said," Gibbs said. Asked if it was possible lawmakers reached their own conclusions, Gibbs said: "It's entirely possible."

Gibbs said President Obama has made no calls to reassure anyone on the public option, not "to lawmakers or liberals."

Moments later, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also blamed reporters for the public option consternation.

"If you were watching the news over the weekend you probably have seen reports about the Obama administration and the public option," Sebelius said during remarks in Washington to the U.S. Administration on Aging's Annual SMP (formerly known as Senior Medicare Control).

"All I can tell you is that Sunday must have been a slow news day because here's the bottom line: absolutely nothing has changed; we continue to support the public option that will help lower cost, give American consumers more choice and keep private insurance honest."