Being unemployed means more normal-human "working" hours and the opportunity to see President Barack Obama's morning news conference -- the first one that hasn't cost the major networks millions of dollars in lost advertising revenue.

President Obama just defended the so-called public plan from criticism that it would drive private insurance companies out of business by saying that that didn't make sense.

*LIVE UPDATE* ABCNews' Jake Tapper follows up, laying out the logic for why a public plan would drive private insurers out of business. (*applause for Tapper*)

Obama's defense of the public plan appears to be mainly that the government bureaucracy can be more efficient than private bureaucracy. Obama appears to vow that the government won't subsidize the government plan in order to unfairly compete against private insurers. He fails to address the issue that the government won't need to make a profit -- unlike private insurers.

He also, necessarily, explains that when he makes the repeated claim that people won't lose their current health coverage if they like it, it's dependent on their employer feeling similarly. For the vast majority of Americans who get their health coverage through their employer, it's very possible that a cheaper, effectively government-subsidized plan, will entice many employers to dump their more expensive coverage. So, despite the President's denials, an honest assessment reveals this defense to be disingenuous at best.

UPDATE!

Here is Tapper's post on his question and Obama's answer.