President Obama defended his plans tonight for a healthcare overhaul that include a lower tax deduction for wealthy who donate to charities.
“Those of us who are a little bit fortunate are going to have to spend a little bit more,” Obama said at tonight’s press conference.
Politico’s Mike Allen asked him if he’s “confident that charities are wrong” that this will hurt giving, and he responded: “yes.”
The Washington Time‘s Jon Ward asked Obama whether he wrestled with the ethics of funding embryonic research.
I think that the guidelines that we provided meet that ethical test. What we have said is that, for embryos that are typically about to be discarded, for us to be able to use those in order to find cures for Parkinson’s or for Alzheimer’s or, you know, all sorts of other debilitating diseases, juvenile diabetes, that, that it is the right thing to do.
And that’s not just my opinion. That is the opinion of a number of people who are also against abortion.
Now, I am glad to see progress is being made in adult stem cells. And if the science determines that we can completely avoid a set of ethical questions or political disputes, then that’s great.
The Associated Press has transcriptions of the press conference here, here, and here.
