Obama lands in Tennessee, Haslam stays away

July 1, 2015 at 3:14 p.m. | Updated July 2, 2015 at 11:35 a.m.

by David Boucher

FILE - In a Thursday, May 14, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference after meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders and delegations at Camp David in Maryland. In a surprise announcement on Monday, May 18, 2015, coming nine months after police in riot gear dispelled racially charged protests, President Obama is banning the federal government from providing some military-style equipment to local departments and putting stricter controls on other weapons and gear distributed to law enforcement. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - In a Thursday, May 14, 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference after meeting with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders and delegations at Camp David in Maryland. In a surprise announcement on Monday, May 18, 2015, coming nine months after police in riot gear dispelled racially charged protests, President Obama is banning the federal government from providing some military-style equipment to local departments and putting stricter controls on other weapons and gear distributed to law enforcement. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Just missing a massive rain storm, President Barack Obama stepped off Air Force One at roughly after landing at Berry Field Air National Guard Base in Nashville. The president was joined by US. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., whose district includes Nashville, on the short flight from Washington, D.C.

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean met Obama on the tarmac before the president jogged over to greet military personnel and others in a small crowd who has gathered to meet the president.

"Thank you for your service," Obama said, shaking hands before heading back to the motorcade to avoid the rain.

Gov. Bill Haslam did not greet the president at the airport, and doesn't plan to attend the president's speech. Although there is nothing listed on the Knoxville Republican's public schedule today, Haslam spokesman David Smith said the timing didn't work out for Haslam to meet with the president.

Haslam had "meetings" Wednesday, Smith said. He didn't elaborate.

Obama was slated to discuss the Affordable Care Act at Taylor Stratton Elementary School in Madison, a neighbor about 10 miles northeast from downtown. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Tuesday the president will focus on what the administration consider success of the controversial federal health care law and progress Obama hopes to continue to make in the future.

The speech comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling people may legally use federal subsidies to purchase health insurance through the federal or state health care exchanges.

Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Ryan Haynes criticized Obama for coming to Nashville to "spike the football" following his victory from the Supreme Court.

President Barack Obama took a slight detour on his way to Taylor Stratton Elementary School, picking up Madison resident Kelly Bryant from her home on North Graycroft Avenue in the neighborhood northeast of Nashville.

"Beautiful! A little wet," Obama said when asked about Nashville, holding an umbrella while walking up the driveway.

Bryant, a breast cancer survivor, will introduce the president. She wrote Obama earlier this year to say she had a positive experience with the Affordable Care Act. She also thanked him for doing work she considers as reforming the health care system in America.

Obama arrived at Taylor Stratton Elementary School at roughly 1:20 p.m. in Madison, a moderate to low-income neighborhood northeast of downtown Nashville. The motorcade passed Opryland resort before making its way through suburban streets, with few protestors or supporters weathering sheets of rain to see the president.

The president's speech on the Affordable Care Act and the future of health care in America was a closed event. About 70 people were invited to attend the event, expected to last roughly an hour.

Many of the people at the event were from the Nashville area and have written to the president about the Affordable Care Act. Others at the event include doctors, nurses, other healthcare providers and leaders; former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., joined other Tennessee politicians at the event.

In addition to the few people holding signs along the route celebrating and blasting the Affordable Care Act, several men standing near the school waved Confederate battle flags earlier in the day.

As is the case in most Southern states, Tennessee is embroiled in a debate over public promotion of Confederate imagery. In the wake of the massacre of nine black church members in Charleston, S.C., U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, and other Tennessee Democrats called for the removal of a large bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the Tennessee state capitol. Forrest was a Confederate general and an early leader in the Ku Klux Klan.

Gov. Bill Haslam later agreed the bust should go; he also called for Tennessee to stop issuing specialty Tennessee licenses plates that include an image of the Confederate battle flags.

Several Tennessee Republicans have criticized the call to remove the Confederate imagery. Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, a Republican, didn't say he supported the removal of the bust but criticized any "knee-jerk reactions" following the Charleston shooting.

On the way to Stratton Elementary School, the President stopped in the Madison neighborhood of Nashville to pick up Kelly Bryant and take her to the event. She was to introduce the president.

The motorcade came to a stop in a fairly nice neighborhood with large lawns. The Beast, as the president's limo is known, stopped in front of her house. The rain was steady, though lighter than it was on departure from the airport. An aide handed the president an umbrella, He walked from the street to the front door, passing the press pool, most of which had no umbrella or rain gear of any kind.

"Beautiful. It's a little wet," he said when a pooler asked how he's enjoying Nashville.

At the front door, he said "Hey Kelly! How are you doing?" and shared a hug. Then he escorted her back to the Beast under his umbrella at a leisurely stroll. She was doing most of the talking but it wasn't audible.

Per the White House, Bryant is a breast cancer survivor who "wrote to the President earlier this year to relay her positive experience with the Affordable Care Act and thank him for reforming the health care system in America."

That was about 20 minute from the airport. The event site was just a few minutes drive from Bryant's house. A hundred of more folks were outside in the rain, mostly cheering. A couple of signs were visible: "Insure Tennessee" and "Thanks Obama."

Inside the school, blue grass music was playing. A big hand-painted sign that read "Welcome to Nashville President Obama" on dark blue with white and royal blue lettering. Big state and US flags behind the stage. There were about as many journalists and cameras as audience members.

Kelly Bryant and President Obama walked onstage together about 1:35 p.m. to a crowd of about 150.

Bryant introduced the president, recounting her bout with breast cancer, the way Healthcare.gov was a great thing for her, and how she never expected anyone, let alone the president, seeing the letter she'd written to him.

"I am living proof of a president who listens and cares about the American people," she said.

Obama joked that Bryant might be the first person ever picked up by a presidential motorcade. "We said we might as well swing by and get her."

He shucked his jacket, though it isn't especially warm in the school cafeteria/auditorium. And as he spoke he rolled up his sleeves.

"Not only are 16 million people getting health insurance who didn't have it before, Obama said, ticking off that and other benefits, "it's actually ended up costing less than people expected.... I'm feeling pretty good about how health care is going."

He noted that Tennessee won a $65 million grant for innovation in health care.

Obama touted the successes of the Affordable Care Act while pointing to a recent Supreme Court decision as a moment to move forward with more reforms during a roughly hour-long speech Wednesday in Nashville.

The president walked around the stage in the cafeteria of Taylor Stratton Elementary School in Madison, a neighborhood northeast of downtown Nashville. With jacket tossed to the side and sleeves rolled up, he spoke about Tennessee health care initiatives like payment reforms currently underway with the help of the Affordable Care Act.

He mentioned the King v. Burwell Supreme Court ruling, but as a point of reference to stop the "misinformation" and start finding ways to cut bureaucracy while increasing efficiency in health care.

"Tennessee has a history of bipartisan, smart state-specific efforts to expand health insurance," Obama said.

Although several people asked about the Affordable Care Act in general, they also asked the president about the most controversial health care topic currently debated in Tennessee: Medicaid expansion.

The GOP-controlled Tennessee state legislature rejected a proposal from Republican Gov. Bill Haslam twice earlier in the year. Haslam's plan, called "Insure Tennessee," offered two separate health care programs that would have used federal funds to provide health insurance to an estimated 280,000 low-income Tennesseans in its first year.

Republicans noted the plan relied on money typically used by other states to expand Medicaid eligibility while questioning whether Tennessee could end the plan if it wanted to or trust the federal government to continue to provide the bulk of the program's funding.

A man named Kenneth from East Tennessee, along with state Rep. Brenda Gilmore, D-Nashville, asked about what they could do to try and convince legislators to pass Insure Tennessee.

Obama said he thinks states should have the authority and flexibility to create state-specific programs, but that doesn't mean they need to ignore federal programs that may be working for other states.

"Y'all should be able to find a solution," Obama said.

"Getting this thing done got so political. Washington is kind of a crazy place...that doesn't mean every place needs to be crazy."

He said people should tell their lawmakers about the benefits they've seen from the Affordable Care Act, and continue to let them know that they want expanded health coverage.

The president also fielded a question from a man named Davy Crockett. Crockett, a man who was 38 years old in April and says he's a descendent of the famous frontiersmen with the same name, spoke at an event earlier this week in Nashville in support of Insure Tennessee.

Crockett, whose given first name is James but chooses to go by Davy, said he's been denied federal health coverage and needs help. Obama said he'd see what he could do find Crockett an answer, before singing "Davy, Davy Crockett!"

Obama end his speech at 2:44 p.m. He met with attendees after leaving the stage.

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