BLITZER: And joining us now, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs.

Robert, do you want the House to pass the Senate version of health care reform?

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Wolf, that is certainly one of the options that is being discussed here and on Capitol Hill.

I know the president believes that health care reform is important. We watched the president travel for two years talking to small businesses, talking to families about the high cost of health care, the struggles that they had. Those concerns are still had by those families and small businesses today.

You won't see him abandon his effort for health care reform.

BLITZER: So, that option is on the table. Is it doable, though? Do you think you have enough Democrats in the House to pass the Senate version, so it does not need to go back to the Senate?

GIBBS: Obviously, that is one of the things, Wolf, that we are working through and they are working through on Capitol Hill in order to get a comprehensive piece of legislation quickly to the president's desk, so we can get important insurance reforms enacted into law very quickly.

BLITZER: What are the other options you have?

GIBBS: Oh, there are a good host of options, Wolf, all of which are being discussed in our own Situation Room.

BLITZER: It sounds to me like one option, the president saying he wants to not jam anything down, at least not right now. It sounds like he wants to scale back and try to come up with a more modest health care reform package that might only require 51 votes in the Senate. Is that another option he is looking at?

GIBBS: Well, Wolf, what the president said clearly today was the idea that some had in ramming something through the Senate before senator-elect Brown was seated is not an option as far as he is concerned. We are not going to go that route.

A bill has already passed the Senate, so one of the options, as you mentioned earlier, is to try that legislation through the House. But, again, the president is focused on getting something done. It is long past time to get health care reform passed into law and make it a reality for American families.

BLITZER: But, if necessary, would you do that 51 majority Senate vote as a backup? GIBBS: Well, look, I think that there are far better strategies to work through right now that are being looked at as to how to get this stuff done.

BLITZER: As you remember, originally, the president wanted it done by the August recess, then by the Thanksgiving recess, then by the Christmas recess, then by the State of the Union address. It has gone on and on and on. What was the problem here?

GIBBS: Well, look, this is a pretty complex piece of legislation. It has had to go through three committees on the House side, three committees on the Senate side, be passed by the House and Senate.

And, look, let's be honest, Wolf. At every step of the way, the special interests, the insurance companies in this country have run millions of dollars of advertising and tried to slow down this process, so that a child that is now being discriminated against by an insurance company because they are telling that family that that child has a preexisting condition, they don't want to see progress on those types of issues in this country.

The president has pushed against the special interests in Washington, against the health insurance lobby, that's why the president is determined to get something done.

Change takes a long time in Washington, Wolf. I am here today exactly one year after I first came to work at the White House. We have not done all that we want to do to change the way Washington works, but the president woke up today just as he did a year ago, determined to change the way Washington works.

BLITZER: Here is what the president said exactly one year ago on this day. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those of us who managed the public's dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The president says do our business in the light of day. Transparency. But a lot of these negotiations were done behind closed doors, backroom deals with the pharmaceutical industry, for example, labor unions, special interest, all sorts of other special interests.

GIBBS: Wolf...

BLITZER: And the Republicans took full advantage of this.

GIBBS: Wolf, I bet the most dominant political story you did in 2009 was on health care. My sense is you're not about to tell me that what you did all throughout 2009 was inaccurate, because you got information on what we were discussing, you watched committee hearings, you watched House and floor debate.

You watched meetings that were happening here at the White House. You have a list of every person that's walked into this White House that's come to talk to an official about health care.

This White House has been the single most transparent White House in the history of our country. We now released the list of people that come here for meetings. That's something that's never been done, not just in recent time, it's never been done in the history of this country.

The president is focused on and has met the promise of transparency. The American people can have confidence that they know what is going on in their government.

BLITZER: But the promise that all of these negotiations, backroom deals, would be on C-SPAN, that hasn't been met.

GIBBS: Well, I -- I don't agree with the notion that somehow these are backroom deals. If they're backroom deals, how do you know about them, Wolf? How are you reporting on them?

BLITZER: Well, we...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Ed Henry who's standing right over there gets information from me and others and is able to accurately report on them.

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Look, Wolf, I know we've all got a script and we've got to say certain things, but let's be honest and forthright with the American people. You've covered health care more than you've covered any single issue in the past year, because you've had and watched the debate that's transpired in this country, and it's been transparent.

BLITZER: But we didn't have access to the negotiations, the discussions you had, for example, with the pharmaceutical industry in Washington. We learned about it after the deal was made, but we didn't watch it unfold.

GIBBS: But you learned about what was in it, Wolf. That's what Ed reported. That's what you've talked about.

The reason that you're talking to me about it is you know about it. If you're talking to me about it, it's a poorly kept secret, if it's a secret.

BLITZER: Well, it's just a little point, but it's significant...

GIBBS: No, it's...

BLITZER: We learned about it after the fact. We didn't watch it happen.

GIBBS: Well, Wolf, I'm happy to come to your editorial meetings and watch how the news happens. This has been the single most transparent White House in the history of our country.

You know because people asked, we would like a list of people that have come to the White House to discuss health care. You have that. In the previous administration, when you ask for that same list about energy, what happened? You went to the Supreme Court.

There's a difference. Transparency has happened in this White House. It's happened under President Obama's watch and people feel confident about that.

BLITZER: Why have the Democrats in three statewide elections, in Virginia, New Jersey and now in Massachusetts, lost?

GIBBS: For varying and different reasons. Obviously, gubernatorial races hinge mostly on local issues. I think there were a myriad of reasons why Martha Coakley didn't win yesterday in Massachusetts.

We've certainly dissected -- and I know you've discussed a lot of those issues. There is an anger and a frustration in this country that the president heard and was elected hearing and inaugurated a year ago.

That same anger continues in this country because there's a genuine frustration that we haven't seen more progress on our economy, that unemployment continues to be at 10 percent.

The president hears and understands that anger, and he's focused each and every day on getting our economy back on track.

BLITZER: Robert Gibbs is the White House press secretary. Thanks very much for coming into THE SITUATION ROOM.

GIBBS: Wolf, I'm happy to do it.