New Website Recycles Democrats’ Debunked Claims on Health Care, Dismisses Americans’ Concerns About Health Care as ‘Laughable’
Facing mounting criticism from the American people over President Obama’s proposed trillion-dollar government takeover of health care, the White House has responded this morning by launching a “reality check” website, featuring videos and preloaded messages that purportedly debunk “health care myths.” In reality, the website simply recycles the same false claims that the Administration and its allies in Congress have been pedaling for weeks.
After no fewer than five polls released at the end of July showed increasing, if not outright, opposition to government-run health care, and with Members of Congress taking heat from constituents during the August district work period, it’s understandable that the White House is getting nervous about the prospects for its health care experiment.
The following are some of the discredited claims the Administration’s new website repeats:
NY Gov. David Paterson’s (D) “dismal standing has led prominent” NY Dems “to informally approach” WH officials about “finding a political appointment” for him (New York Times).
Last week after a health care town meeting in Valdosta, Georgia a Valdosta State University student, Ashleigh Kenny, gave me a tee shirt. The front said, “R.I.P. The U.S. Constitution” the back has a Ronald Reagan quote, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem”.
Upon posting this picture, critical blogs leaped into action. Not just attacking the message but me - no surprise there – and soon they moved on to 21 year old Ashleigh.
The first blogger made a point - isn’t it overly dramatic to suggest the Constitution is under attack? And should I, as loco parentis, encourage this sort of student activism?
Before I could respond others joined in and Ashleigh moved from co-ed to “prostitute.” It’s amazing how perceptive left-wingers can be just from one photo.
It is important for the American people to know the numbers relevant to the House Democrats 1,018-page “Americas Affordable Health Choices Act”, H.R. 3200. All Americans deserve access to affordable healthcare; however, the answer to high healthcare costs does not lie with government involvement, increased regulation, or mandates. In fact, those steps often depress the efficiency of programs and create additional costs. The video below shows just a few of the ways this bill will impact the American people if passed.
Energy and Commerce worked until midnight last night, and will reconvene at 10am this morning. They are expected to finish their health care markup sometime this afternoon.
Last night’s most heated debates in E&C revolved around publicly-funded abortions. Lois Capps was able to pass an amendment permitting the Democrats’ government plan to cover elective abortions. Reps. Pitts and Stupak followed that up with an amendment of their own, prohibiting abortions from being covered under the government plan. That amendment passed. Finally, Chairman Waxman reconsidered the vote–switched Bart Gordon’s vote–and defeated the amendment. The result of all of this dizzying maneuvering? Taxpayer-funded abortions are indeed covered by the Democrats’ bill.
Apparently President Obama apparently doesn’t remember this. He thought planning a government healthcare takeover would be easier, but it’s not going as smoothly as he would hope.
The President claimed that “special interests” were stalling on healthcare reform. This isn’t true. Now, he’s blaming Republicans. The Hill reports:
“President Obama sharply criticized Republicans on Tuesday for following a ‘familiar script’ to ‘block healthcare reform.’” (The Hill, 7/21/09)
Democrats have a 77 seat majority in the House of Representatives and hold a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. So how can he blame Republicans for stalling when his party controls Congress and the Senate?
Even House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) knows why healthcare has stalled.
“I want to make it very clear that there’s progressives, Blue Dogs and everybody in between who have expressed concerns, and we’re working on that.” (ABC News, 7/21/09)
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) makes it clear that if Americans don’t like a government-takeover of health care, it has only Democrat fingerprints on it – as Republicans weren’t allowed to have any input in the bill.
“In the House of Representatives, meanwhile, we are explicitly told not to work with Republicans.” (Huffington Post, 6/18/09)
Blaming Republicans won’t work. The truth is, the President’s plans for healthcare have stalled because of opposition from Democrats.
The Democratic National Committee is launching a new television advertisement today to press Congress to support President Obama’s health care plan — and is targeting moderate Democrats to come on board…
…More interesting than the message is who it’s being aimed at. One version of the ad will be placed in Washington, DC, and on news and information Websites — a typical strategy to reach opinion leaders.
A slightly different version — ending with a request for viewers to “call your senators” — will air in Florida, Nebraska, Indiana, Louisiana, North Dakota, Arkansas, Maine, and Ohio, according to a Democratic Party official.
With the exception of Maine and Ohio, each of those states is home to at least one moderate Democratic senator whose vote on health care is in question. Maine is represented by two moderate Republicans who top the list of potential GOP votes on health care reform; Ohio has one such Republican senator, in addition to a liberal Democrat…
Perhaps the frustration comes from more “moderate” Democrat senators which led the party to take control of the body by taking seats in typically conservative states. From the post:
While Democrats now control 60 Senate seats — enough to break a Republican filibuster — not all Democrats are backing Obama’s plan. Conservatives are continuing to balk at the price tag, as well as the proposal to establish a “public option” to compete with private health insurers.
It would appear the DNC’s “big tent” approach is backfiring as it’s forced to campaign against its own Senators who do not embrace the party’s lefist views.
The Cap and Tax Fiction Democrats off-loading economics to pass climate change bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House, and the bill may get a full vote as early as Friday. It looks as if the Democrats will have to destroy the discipline of economics to get it done.
Despite House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman’s many payoffs to Members, rural and Blue Dog Democrats remain wary of voting for a bill that will impose crushing costs on their home-district businesses and consumers. The leadership’s solution to this problem is to simply claim the bill defies the laws of economics.
Their gambit got a boost this week, when the Congressional Budget Office did an analysis of what has come to be known as the Waxman-Markey bill. According to the CBO, the climate legislation would cost the average household only $175 a year by 2020. Edward Markey, Mr. Waxman’s co-author, instantly set to crowing that the cost of upending the entire energy economy would be no more than a postage stamp a day for the average household. Amazing. A closer look at the CBO analysis finds that it contains so many caveats as to render it useless.
In a new web video Jack discusses the Wheels for Wellness program which he successfully stripped from the bill that will fund Congress this year, saving tax payers $100,000. So far the program has spent $200,000 which only purchased 30 bikes. The bikes were only utilized 186 times by employees and are only available during work hours, when in theory staff should be working in their taxpayer funded job.
Speaker Pelosi promised the most “open and ethical” Congress when Democrats took control. In POLITICO today, we’re given a look at the efforts taken to do that.
According to the article, top Democrats come close to threatening members if they vote for an ethics investigation into congressional ties to the PMA group. One email, entitled “Don’t be a Flake” informed members that the, “leadership would have its eyes on any Democrats even thinking about defecting.”
Another, from Democrat Whip Jim Clyburn, “warned Democrats that they would suffer in 2010″ if the measure passed.
After pouring more than $60 million into Democrat campaign coffers last cycle, Big Labor got the first step in its payback last week with the introduction of Card Check legislation. The problem now is that the majority of Americans support the right to secret ballot elections and disagree with Card Check.
Despite growing the government through the trillion dollar economic “stimulus” and preparing for the largest increase in government since the Carter Administration with this week’s omnibus, House Democrats have failed to conduct a single oversight hearing so far this year. From todays The Hill:
Despite the fact that the government is steering hundreds of billions of dollars to financial firms and has approved the spending of hundreds of billions more, the House Oversight Committee is one of two panels in the lower chamber that have yet to hold a hearing in this Congress. The other is the Homeland Security Committee.
Compare that to the last Congress during which then-Chairman Henry Waxman held hearings on everything from, “the Bush administration’s use of e-mail to private security contractors in Iraq to steroids in Major League Baseball.”
