I'm on a conference call right now with David Plouffe. I asked him about the PhRMA deal and how it squares with the president's anti-lobbyist position.
The upshot, Plouffe replied, is that the president has closed the revolving door. He also said that healthcare reform is complicated and that's it's important to control costs.
I asked a follow-up question about whether it was within the president's character to back out of the deal considering that the drug companies are jacking up prices in advance of reform being passed. Plouffe said he wasn't party to the deal, of course, but he continued to insist that there would be a cost savings. Nothing about whether it's within the president's capacity to back out of the deal.
UPDATE: Audio after the jump.
Here's my first question with the follow-up, preceded by Amanda Terkel from ThinkProgress and Chris Bowers from Open Left. And later in the call, I asked Plouffe about the Rahm Emanuel influence on the administration.