“The Day After”
EmailPost-speech spin is in full swing on Capitol Hill today. Republicans have been painting President Obama's speech as "partisan" and "disingenuous." My colleague Z. Byron Wolf has more from Capitol Hill:
It is not quite the "you lie" yelled by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-SC, at President Obama during last night's speech, but this morning Republican leaders did accuse the President of "disingenuousness" during his speech last night. That is the word Sen. Jon Kyl, the number two Republican used four times during a press conference in which he disputed several points made by the President. "I have never heard a more partisan speech by a President in that chamber," Kyl said of the President's address, comparing the speech to "the Chicago style politics," with which Kyl said the President is familiar. Pointing to proposals from Democrats to cut subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans that many seniors use to supplement their government-run health care for older Americans, Kyl said the President was being disingenuous when he said nothing in the plan would require people to give up the coverage they have. Kyl also disputed some of the President’s points on medical liability reform – something Democrats have fought in Congress – and saying that health care reform would not add to the national debt. "Bottom line," said Kyl, "the speech was partisan, uninformative, disingenuous, and not likely" to lead people who disagree with the White House to work with them. Also at this press conference, Rep. Eric Cantor, the number two Republican in the House, addressed Rep. Wilson's outburst in the House chamber during the President's speech last night. Cantor said Wilson did the right thing in apologizing to the White House and publicly.
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Obama lied again.
Posted by: Johnny L | September 10, 2009, 3:20 pm 3:20 pm
These Republicans are really not reasonable people.
They’re trying to protect their contributors more than the American people. Disingenuous? They are the disingenuous ones.
Posted by: Reed | September 10, 2009, 3:26 pm 3:26 pm
I missed hearing Rep. Wilson’s shout because I was yelling at the TV myself. I don’t think I was alone. How can the President stand up there and say what we’ve read and studied is not true? We KNOW what the Health Care bill says. We don’t rely on him or the media for truth anymore. Many of us think of Rep. Wilson as the person shouting,”The emperor is wearing no clothes.”
Posted by: Kay | September 10, 2009, 3:27 pm 3:27 pm
HOW ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR IT?
You might want to think about who is going to chase down all these people who are abusing the Medicare/Medicaid systems with this fraud. All the people they will have to hire…..Then you have all the cases being tried for this and the cost of to the Federal Gov for their attorneys and others they have to subcontract to prosecute these people, the cost of taking care of these offenders in prisons which will be overloaded, of their free healthcare, food, TV, college educations (provided by our penal systems). And yes, they can get a free College Education in prison. We have a local prison – with its weight room, paved jogging path, basketball courts, big screen TV’s…………you name it they get it all free at the taxpayers’ expense. If you think that the money saved from these frauds will go to medical care for us, think again. It will be soaked up into all these other costs and we will still be forced to pay high premiums to the government for their mistakes – it was their responsibility to make sure the system was not being defrauded to start with instead of now having to spend billions to go after these people!
Posted by: SKH | September 10, 2009, 3:34 pm 3:34 pm
What great journalism to review the Hill spin by quoting a single rightwing Senator. Nice work!
Posted by: KAK | September 10, 2009, 3:39 pm 3:39 pm
Internet morons are so readily identifiable!
Posted by: KAK | September 10, 2009, 3:56 pm 3:56 pm
Senator Kyl: the White House glitters in his dreams.
So, he will say anything, fabricated or not, to manipulate the uninformed.
I’d love to meet an honest Republican…someday…certainly Gomer Huckabee who is bidding his time as the nice christian alternative to those evil liberals!!!!!
Posted by: balanor | September 10, 2009, 4:08 pm 4:08 pm
OK, if it was not a lie, can someone show me where in the bill abortion and illegal aliens are excluded from health care, because I can’t find it.
Posted by: Anon | September 10, 2009, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
Pelosi quoted by the Washington Times:”Last night, President Obama delivered what I believe to be one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in the Congress of the United States,” the speaker told reporters Thursday at her weekly Capitol Hill press conference.”
Hey George, you like to point out spin. Add this to your collection. (not to mention bloated exaggeration)
Actually, disingenuous is a term a bit too mild.
Posted by: keys2truth | September 10, 2009, 4:20 pm 4:20 pm
To address Anon, I don’t see where in the bill abortions and illegal aliens are included either… I think to make an argument for either side, then, is not reasonable.
Additionally, I don’t think the speech given last night was any better/ worse than speeches given in the past. Let’s face it, the president has a nack for these things. However, I still do not understand how this plan will not cost tax payers anything? Just recently there was a story on NPR about the ridiculous cost of tools used for surgeries and how little 24 mm stints can cost $2000 a piece because there is no competitive pricing for these things and doctors can go through 4 of those things duringa single operation. Are over priced surgical equipment going to be a part of this “waste” he plans to cut? Why weren’t there more specifics given last night?
Posted by: LNL | September 10, 2009, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
Why do we think it is acceptable for a US elected official to have an uncontrolled outburst when that type of behavior would NEVER be tolerated in a business meeting of any kind on earth. A reflection of the low quality of people we are electing or a reflection on the voting public? Maybe both.
Posted by: Elaine | September 10, 2009, 5:02 pm 5:02 pm
to Elaine “Why do we think it is acceptable for a US elected official to have an uncontrolled outburst….” – for the same reason we thought it was acceptable during President Bush’s 2005 State of the Union address – no one, including media, said anything about how disrespectful or uncivil it was then.
Posted by: Cheri | September 10, 2009, 5:12 pm 5:12 pm
Anon: Under the heading “No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens,” the House bill, H.R. 3200, says: “Nothing in this title shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” The counter is that the bill has no enforcement of this. Obama’s comments were 100% true but that does not mean that illegals wouldn’t be provided healthcare by either providing false information or with the assistance of healthcare providers.
Posted by: xmarks | September 10, 2009, 5:12 pm 5:12 pm
To Cheri:
I really don’t care what the media says, because as far as I am concerned, I can think for myself and make my own decisions. I am not in support of any outburst by any public official, just as I am not in favor of any elected official who has affairs or see prostitutes.
We have come to a new low in this country and it is alarming and embarassing to me. As a responsible citizen and adult, I can’t believe we are electing these people. What happend to common decency and respect?
Posted by: Elaine | September 10, 2009, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
10 Amendment: The powers NOT DELEGATED to the United States by the Constitution, NOR PROHIBITED by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
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This means that the states have the right to establish health care, not that they have to or that they can’t. It is not prohibited and the states are the ones who should be handling it. On the other hand there is nothing in the constitution that allows the federal government to establish health care and Congress knows it.
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The variants in each state are so numerous as to be difficult to write a fair bill for the entire state, but when it comes to writing one for 50 states the variables are too numerous to even consider it fairly, let alone to enact it.
The name calling and venom being displayed by many in the blogs is deplorable. If more of the younger generations would apply the ethics and kindness that many of your ‘old geezers’ have, it would be much pleasanter weeding out the blogs that really have something to say either pro or con. Some opinions of both sides are valid in many cases and should help us to come to our own final conclusion. We will not all agree and no plan fits all and never will. Right now the cost of this type of program is so unknown that it is frightening. I worry about what we are leaving our future generations. There is no way to accurately assess the cost so we must watch as this progresses and as each version is formed and possibly incorporated into another. But not rushed to judgment as it was with the cap-and-trade and house version HR3200 passed in committee. I have still not read the entire RH3200. The various provisions pertaining to each part are all over the place and have to be collected, put together and then hopefully assessed correctly before it is accepted or rejected.
In the first 6-1/2 months of this administration, Mr. Obama was out of this country 14 times and accomplished little more than family vacations which included what was the equivalent of stopping by to say hello to relatives, but nothing achieved as far as his job was concerned. His 34 czars, many of whom don’t know up from down and are as questionable as the people some of the bloggers refer to, are doing all of his work. Now there is talk of running Hillary again and I am neither a republican nor a democrat, but when our choices come down to a product of Chicago politics and someone whose lies and corruption are well documented all over the internet, in books and by the media as it occured (who conveniently ignored all of it in the last election and probably will again). I can say to Michelle: “For the first time, I am ashamed to be an American”.
Posted by: Iwantmycountryback | September 11, 2009, 12:17 am 12:17 am
I would like to know how much money has been contributed to ALL the senators and representatives in both houses of Congress by the Health Insurance and Pharmacy lobbies.
Please provide this information for public perusal.
I suspect that the loudest protests to the healthcare project are VERY large recipients to these PAC funds.
Posted by: Cheryl Smith | September 13, 2009, 10:26 am 10:26 am
Libs… the problem for Obama IS NOT the Republicans!!! It’s the moderate/centrist that are leaving him in droves!!! If you fail to even recongnize or ask him to address this… he WILL be a one term President.
If I were you, I’d ask Obama to be reasonable with the other side and listen to the moderate and independents… Without their support you can’t win any election! Stop “cutting off your nose to spite your face!”
Irrationality looks good on a blog post but SCARES OFF the “silent majority” that wins you elections!!! HELLO!!!
Posted by: jafo | September 16, 2009, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm