Republican Candidates Link Stimulus Woes to Health Care
EmailABC News’ Rick Klein reports: The political fallout from widespread discrepancies in Obama administration job data may extend beyond the stimulus. Republican congressional candidates are putting new pressure on their Democratic opponents by linking the snafus in job reporting to potential bureaucratic problems under Democrats’ health care plans. A sampling of the messaging, as a hearing on Capitol Hill today focuses on the errors on the Recovery.gov Web site: “These kinds of mistakes in a stimulus package cost jobs; these kinds of mistakes in a healthcare plan cost lives. It’s just frightening,” said Steve Stivers, a Republican House candidate in Ohio. “If we learn anything from this stimulus boondoggle it should be that the government is not equipped to handle that size of a project in a responsible manner and should in the future take their time and do it right,” said House candidate Frank Guinta, R-N.H. “If Nancy Pelosi and Tim Bishop cannot be counted upon to institute an program of relief for American families and small businesses with our tax dollars, I don't see how they can be expected to properly administer a massive $1 trillion health care overhaul which represents one-sixth of our national economy,” said Randy Altschuler, who’s running against Rep. Bishop, D-N.Y., on Long Island. “The inaccurate reporting raises questions beyond the ‘stimulus’ to whether we can trust government management in other areas as well. … How can we have any faith in this same government running our healthcare system?” said Larry Bucshon, who is challenging Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind., for a seat in Congress. UPDATE: Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, offered this response: "While these flawed Republican candidates and their Republican Party bosses root for failure, congressional Democrats are working to turn the economy around and enact real health insurance reform. It's no wonder the American people don't trust the Republican 'party of no’ when all they offer is a return to the failed Bush-era policies that left us with an economic catastrophe."
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That would be entirely justified.
If there are lies and waste in the handling of the stimulus, then it certainly indicates the potential for lies and waste in the health care proposal, as well.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | November 19, 2009, 11:11 am 11:11 am
Leave it to the Republicans to be so confused that they don’t realize these are two separate things…
Posted by: matt | November 19, 2009, 11:15 am 11:15 am
The spin is worse than a hurricane over a sewer pond this morning. Harry says that 94 or 96% will now have healthcare which might be a true statement but what he doesn’t say is that most of us, somewhere in the mid 80 percent range already have it and that of the remainder that don’t 10 or 12 million of them could afford it but don’t buy it. If this was about healthcare they would have devised a plan to cover the needy, the working poor who don’t make enoght to buy a policy and do it immediately. Instead we get a bill full of taxes, not just on the rich but on all of us that won’t do jack s— for 3 more years, paying immediately for it.
This is nothing more than a scam.
Posted by: david | November 19, 2009, 11:27 am 11:27 am
……..blahblahblah
Posted by: hadit | November 19, 2009, 11:30 am 11:30 am
why would I pay any attention to the party of no, the party of racists and the party of fear mongering? Ignore them – they have lost their way and really who cares what they say or what their opinions are?
Posted by: cjr | November 19, 2009, 11:32 am 11:32 am
Just print gobs more money. Bernanke can provide everything for all of us. Maybe the foreign creditors can help us too.
Posted by: Huh | November 19, 2009, 11:36 am 11:36 am
cjr 11:32am..so typical. anytime the Obowma admin makes a mistake a pathetic person will come on this blog and play the race card.
Posted by: 912er | November 19, 2009, 11:40 am 11:40 am
Our government, from top to bottom, is a tangled mess of liars, abusers and nut-jobs. This health bill is a product of that environment. And rather than force our elected officials to listen, we point fingers.
Posted by: S | November 19, 2009, 11:58 am 11:58 am
If the Republicans want ANY creditability with this line of attack they must take a strong stand to ELIMINATE Medicare. If the government can’t be trusted to implement this smaller program, how can they continue to be trusted to provide complete socialized health insurance to everyone over 65?
Are Republicans taking a stand to eliminate Medicare, the massive government run socialized health car program, yes or no? If no, then they are clearly playing partisan games at the whim of their corporate donors in the health care complex.
Posted by: jhw539 | November 19, 2009, 11:58 am 11:58 am
that of the remainder that don’t 10 or 12 million of them could afford it but don’t buy it.
david | Nov 19, 2009 11:27:29 AM
That remainder is sopping off of all the responsible payers by using the ER system as their personal free catastrophic insurance policy. What happened to Republicans being about personal responsibility? Do you SERIOUSLY not see this as a problem?
It doesn’t matter if they CAN pay for it – they aren’t. That is a problem that is raising costs and clogging ER rooms for everyone.
Posted by: jhw539 | November 19, 2009, 12:01 pm 12:01 pm
Senator Hatch has called the GOP attempt to stop healthcare a “holy war”. This is an awful term to use. To equate healthcare with the war on terror is just inexcusable. Back earlier in the year, most Americans were for healthcare including a public option and the GOP has been saying all along it can’t find any Americans for it. Wake up Mr. Hatch! The lines for free healthcare are long and people are sick with untreated diseases. None of them can afford healthcare or a fine if imposed on them. Whoever dreamt up the fine is nuts. It sounds good until one takes into account the 7+ million unemployed or underemployed American workers. Imposing a fine on these people is like adding insult to injury. Don’t allow the GOP to force the Senate to read the 2000+ pages. Americans cannot afford any more delays. People are dying because of the lack of health insurance in this country.
Posted by: Bob | November 19, 2009, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
Where is Biden at? Obama said he was going to the watch dog over the Stimulis spending? If this is the way they oversee 787 Billion,why would we trust them to oversee 2 trillion dollars in health care funds??? Yes it will be 2 trillion not the 900 billion they keep lying about.
Posted by: StrikerF | November 19, 2009, 12:15 pm 12:15 pm
I don’t know about the other guys who were gave comments in the article, but I do know Steve Stivers. Just to give you some insight, Mr. Stivers is a former Ohio state senator running for the 15th congressional seat for the second time against Mary Jo Kilroy, who now holds that seat. Mr. Stivers is a former lobbyist (go figure) for Bank One which was one of the biggest banks in central Ohio and now part of JPMorgan Chase. Mr. Stivers was against less regulation of banks and thought more oversight of mortgages was a bad idea! While he was a state senator he was one of 4 that voted against the predatory lending bill and supported Bush’s tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%. Mr. Stivers commented in the article about “mistakes in the heathcare plan will cost lives”. That is funny, because he has ruined the financial lives of so many of his constituents!
Posted by: zee | November 19, 2009, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
“all they offer is a return to the failed Bush-era policies that left us with an economic catastrophe.”
This is an unusually accurate rebuttal for the often-windy DCCC. Anyone can easily grasp that we’ve just had 8 years of repeated tax breaks, see how they ‘helped’ the economy, and see Republicans are still loudly insisting for more tax cuts for the rich. What, the last trillion dollars weren’t enough?
And if these minor health care tweaks that are ‘easy’ would have any impact, why on Earth didn’t the Republicans do them years ago and take the credit?
Posted by: jhw539 | November 19, 2009, 12:29 pm 12:29 pm
None of them can afford healthcare or a fine if imposed on them.
Bob | Nov 19, 2009 12:08:13 PM
This is not true. Many can afford health insurance, at least catastrophic coverage, and it is perfectly reasonable to require they do so rather than sop off the publicly-funded (through inefficient mechanisms) ER system. The poor and indigent are provided for through a safety net system; they won’t be fined money they don’t have although, as is the American way, they will be getting just the necessities (a plaster cast not an articulating boot/brace for a broken leg for example).
Posted by: jhw539 | November 19, 2009, 12:33 pm 12:33 pm
Obama….
The constant lying.
The childish whining.
The disgraceful bowing.
The staggering arrogance.
The poisonous radicalism.
The dangerous narcissism.
The astounding incompetence.
Obama wants to put as much of the private economy under government control as possible to create his nanny state utopia where he is the boy king.
Let’s continue to stand strong against Obama in every way and get Congress out of the hands of the insane Pelosi and Reid in 2010.
Obama is a smug, smirking con man. Nothing more.
Posted by: Jackson | November 19, 2009, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm
If democrats want any credibility in defending against the obvious relationship, then they better start by not pretending the relationship doesn’t exist.
The supposed pretext of the health care bill was to save money and eliminate waste by the use of the “superior intellectual abilities” of the Obama Administration. All these scandals from the stimulus to lack of H1N1 vaccine make it obvious they are incompetent, and are not the superior beings they claim to be.
Hopefully that is simple enough for obamatrons to follow.
Posted by: jonny | November 19, 2009, 12:50 pm 12:50 pm
Where is Biden at? Obama said he was going to the watch dog over the Stimulis spending? If this is the way they oversee 787 Billion,
StrikerF | Nov 19, 2009 12:15:56 PM
Can you seriously not understand the difference between a typo ridden database and the actual disbursement of funds? Come back when you have an example of money actually being fraudulently awarded or wasted. And frankly, it is astonishing that in a program of this size Republicans have not been able to find at least a few small such examples by now.
Posted by: jhw539 | November 19, 2009, 12:58 pm 12:58 pm
All these scandals from the stimulus to lack of H1N1 vaccine make it obvious they are incompetent, and are not the superior beings they claim to be.
Hopefully that is simple enough for obamatrons to follow.
jonny | Nov 19, 2009 12:50:36 PM
So the flu virus being slow growing is an Obama scandal? And the unprecedented release of almost real-time detailed information on stimulus spending is also a scandal?
There is indeed something(one) simple in here.
Posted by: jhw539 | November 19, 2009, 12:59 pm 12:59 pm
Listening to Republicans makes me think that the best thing would be just to dissolve government completely. No more Congress, no President. Let everyone fend for themselves….Maybe lead to chaos and anarchy but at least we would no longer have to listen to blowhards rail against government since there would be none…
Posted by: indy_voter | November 19, 2009, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
It amazes how much everyone forgets the sins committed by their own party in order to rail against the other. Both Dems and Reps have raped us taxpayers over and over again and all you do is cry out to have it done again. When will these corrupt and ineffective bureaucrats be taken to task for the corruption, their taking bribes, their passing legislation they have not read their ear marks. Why don’t we just throw out every one of them. The reason is because every one of you complaining thinks that the pork brought home by your man was deserved. Get the Legislature back in the business it is supposed to be doing. Protect our borders, destroy our enemies and maintain intrastate commerce. Stop giving every beggar on the street money from my pocket. Benjamin Franklin said that if you want to help the poor then make them uncomfortable with their poverty. Stop asking me to pay for those who wont do for themselves.
Posted by: American Voter | November 19, 2009, 1:08 pm 1:08 pm
I support a legislation that guarantees quality, safe and affordable healthcare to all US residents, including the choice of a public insurance plan…that will compete with private insurance plans to make insurance affordable. But it does not go far enough. Food, shelter and clothing are necessities of Life. Therefore, we must have government-owned and operated grocery stores to ensure quality, safe and affordable food for everyone. Only by creating government stores competing with private stores can we bring down prices. Of course, to guarantee that the government-owned stores can obtain food at low prices, it will need to own wholesale distributors. There are farm prices to worry about, so government-owned farms are necessary. Food and what we spend on it are too important to be left to places like Wal-Mart etc. and the like.
Now, what do we do about housing and clothing???????
Posted by: Lizzie | November 19, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
Hey Jackson, paranoid much??
Posted by: zee | November 19, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
Only obamatrons think that the obama administration just discovered how vaccines are grown and the time frame to make them. This information seems to be a thunderbolt from heaven. That there ignorance of this absolves them of responsibility? That the way they have been communicating this is not a problem to say the least?
This issue and the effectiveness of their stimulus plan goes to the heart of their competence. All they are doing is making different (but significant) errors than the previous administration.
If it is reassuring to some, that they are releasing how badly they are doing, well then I’m happy for you.
Posted by: jonny | November 19, 2009, 1:35 pm 1:35 pm
we spent 15 billion a month in Iraq war, 180 billion a year. Did we get any benefits from that? We went to war because of a lie. At least
With the healthcare public option we are going to get some help for the middle class.
Posted by: hybridhealthcare | November 19, 2009, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Either the Obama administration is incompetent as they don’t understand how vaccines are grown, or they mis communicated the status all along of the availability of the vaccine. Only an obamatron is going to find that just dandy.
If you can’t see the relationship with the way the governement has mismannged the stimulus money, the mismanagement of the H1N1 vaccine availability and independent’s concerns about them running another even larger government program than, then all I can say is Houston we have a problem.
If it is reassuring to those that the obama administration is letting us know about how incompetent they are then I am happy for you.
Posted by: jonny | November 19, 2009, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
I have a very simple solution to the healthcare issue let the American people who are in need of health care receive the same HEALTH CARE Plan that the UNITED STATES CONGRESSMEN AND WOMEN, OUR CABINET MEMBERS, THE PRESIDENT AND others are receiving. We the people who work and pay our taxes pay their salaries and their health care. If anyone finds this to be a problem I strongly suggest that it better not be the mouthy men and women of either political party. It is a shame that men and women of whom we the people have elected have develop a plan to divide this nation on what should be a very basic human right. The ability to have health care and not lose their homes to get it. We the people are being made out to be stupid for it’s the major drug companies, and health insurance companies that are running the show here in the United States and its our elected lawmakers who abide by their rules so that may receive a extra check in the mail. The men and women who say they trying to help us the people only lie to keep us in the dark or to pacify us. If asked if they would give up their health care plan which would mean that their families would be without health care I am sure they would refuse. The only ones to probably say yes are those very well off and don’t need the plan for they could pay for it themselves. America stop being taking in by the two AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES we hold up with honor, WAKE UP THIS IS A GAME, AND WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE PAWNS DESTINED TO BE SACFRICED. Finally, don’t let the ABORTION ISSUE BE THE STUMBLING BLOCK, FOR THOSE WHO CRY OUT AGAINST IT DON”T WANT TO RAISE LET ALONE ADOPT A CHILD NOT OF THEIR OWN BUT WILL TELL YOU TO HAVE IT AND WHAT???? THE GOVERNMENT DOESN”T WHAT TO RAISE YOUR CHILD, and those who want to adopt are KEPT FROM ADOPTING SO THEY GO OVERSEAS TO DO SO. WE CAN”T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS, THE CHILD WILL ALWAYS loose in the END.
The Republicans are crying FIRE at the top of their lungs but have shown no real solution or plan that will give every American good health care and if they have a plan why didn’t they present it eight years ago?? They have no real intention of granting every person in the UNTIED STATES HEALTHCARE they only LIE. Democrats are no better so let’s not forget them. AMERICA WAKE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!!
WE NEED HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS !!!!!
Posted by: denise | November 19, 2009, 2:12 pm 2:12 pm
Isn’t it wonderful how a handful of people can filibuster and entire blog… Well you know ABC agrees with them, because if you dare to object to these “bloggers” or ABC, your post goes down the “memory hole.”
Anybody else wised up and left these blogs? Feel free to tell your stories:
Posted by: jafo | November 19, 2009, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
It’s funny that none of the GOP or the conservatives in America were screaming loudly when the last administration was destroying America’s economy and military. Now, it’s the darn Liberals destroying everything that’s great about this country. I’m not saying that the Dems in Congress are to be patted on the back. On the contrary, they shoudl all be kicked in the butt and explained that the last election meant doing something other than hiding under their desk. The stimulus was necessary. Anyone who expected it would be perfect is a fool. When that much money is sent into the economy, it will take a hurclean effort to keep graft at bay. As for health care…we need it now. The people who seem to be against it the most have it. And the GOP??? They could care less about the country. All they want to do is stop anything President Obama proposes, whether they like it or not. They have declared war on America and they will be responsible for it’s demise.
Posted by: algwriter | November 19, 2009, 3:35 pm 3:35 pm
I was just listening to Miss. Governor Barber…he’s sitting on T.V. railing about Miss. doing a good job with Medical system, stating he cut the cost of MEDICAID making his system cheaper and effective….Yeah, Governor, Mississippi is The POOREST STATE in the Nation, with a LARGE UNINSURED population ( due to your household limits of 9,000 dollars per year for family of 4) I guess YOU DID cut MEDICAID, BY DENYING THEM SUPPLEMENTAL OR AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE. THIS IS HOW THESE IDIOTS THINKS…. and HERE HE WAS “gloating”….
Posted by: sara | November 19, 2009, 5:55 pm 5:55 pm
The irony is that the recovery.gov mistakes were made by private (not government) business, when submitting paperwork describing their projects. If anything this highlights the mistakes of individual participating in the free market, not the stimulus plan.
Posted by: PDX Lager | November 19, 2009, 6:40 pm 6:40 pm
Somebody mentioned the “race card” as an automatice response to Obama critics as if race is an absurd factor. It’s not! In fact, there’s proof that it drives most of the opposition. That proof is the use of double standards. Racism is easily deniable and impossible to prove, so people deny it. We need to stop tip=toeing around the fact that millions of Americans hate the idea of a black President but don’t havce the guts to say so. Thus, they inventy reasons to oppose Obama’s every move or make up lies. For instance, there is no “government takeover” or “government run” health care proposal. That’s the level of pure propaganda being used by the GOP and their mouth pieces on talk radio. The focus on illegals when the debate began was another ploy to expolit racism against Mexican nationals. Even the term “race card” is a direct quote from Sean Hannity. It always prefaces his denials after he uses one of his many double standards against the President.
Posted by: Mike In Carolina | November 19, 2009, 7:27 pm 7:27 pm
I can do one better than the GOP. I can link the whole country’s woes to THEM.
Posted by: allen_osuno | November 19, 2009, 7:52 pm 7:52 pm
Response to: Posted by: Bob | Nov 19, 2009 12:08:13 PM
…Don’t allow the GOP to force the Senate to read the 2000+ pages. Americans cannot afford any more delays. People are dying because of the lack of health insurance in this country.
ELF Response:
The House bill is slated to go into effect in 2013, the Senate bill in 2014, perhaps YOU should read the bill. Of course you will start paying higher taxes immediately.
This bill will kill many more people as increased mandates and taxes make health insurance even more unaffordable (not to mention rationing). More people will make the rational choice to go without insurance, even if they are fined. Fewer corporations will be able to hire due to increased costs and mandates so unemployment will increase, thus even fewer will get health care.
It is clear Obama’s policies are the CAUSE of increasing unemployment. Stealing from bondholders to make a political payoff to the UAW; tax-the-environment; health care takeover, taxes and mandates; and support of anti-business activists such as ACCORN; what employer in their right mind would hire new workers in this environment.
Basically your argument is more senseless drivel from the party of the emotional and irrational mob. Obama and his Liberal machine whip the populous into frenzy and get them to support their big government, union, trial lawyer and Wall Street agenda, which is anathema to creating wealth and good jobs in this country. That giant sucking sound you hear is Obama trying to suck the middle class into dependency on, and servitude to, the federal government, union bosses and well connected liberals.
If you liked the AIG failure, than support this plan. On one hand Congress is voting to eliminate “to big to fail” corporations and at the same time they are taking over one-sixth of the economy to manage for themselves. This while Medicare and Social Security, the programs they are entrusted to manage, stand on the brink of bankruptcy. Do you think the Chinese will spare a few Yaun to bail out these entitlement programs, and our entire health care system, when our government goes bankrupt?
Posted by: ELF | November 20, 2009, 12:40 am 12:40 am