Dec 20, 2009 11:19am
Axelrod to Dean: Not Insane, But His Facts Were Wrong
EmailSenior White House Adviser David Axelrod told me that Howard Dean had his facts wrong when Dean suggested that Democrats kill the health care reform bill and start over.
Axelrod said Dean's "facts were wrong" when the former Vermont Governor criticized reform as a giveaway to insurance companies.
Earlier in the week, Axelrod called efforts from the left to derail reform "insane". Today in my This Week interview, Axelrod clarified that he didn't say Dean was insane, but that "it would be insane to pass on the opportunity to enact the reform that would have such a positive impact on our future."
Axelrod added that "it was probably an unfortunate choice of words."
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I will watch politicians on your show when you hook them up to lie detectors
Posted by: Rob | December 20, 2009, 11:23 am 11:23 am
Dean is right.. Kill the Bill.
Obama could care less what is in the bill, he just want the glory of saying he signed a bill before the end of his first year.
And of course we wouldn’t want to dissapoint him would we.
ABC start asking hard questions….your soft ball games with these lying politicians, only make you look as bad as they are.
Posted by: abc is going down the tubes | December 20, 2009, 11:50 am 11:50 am
NBC “meet the depressed”… morning joe and kos kiddie web founder;;” they have just given the insurance industry and its investors billions of dollars… buy healthcare and pharma stocks today”
Thanks Obama.. we knew you were in bed with the wall street and healthcare industry
Posted by: Obama needs a new mattress to go along with healthcare | December 20, 2009, 12:01 pm 12:01 pm
stop scrolling summary and biased comments like “Obama poll ratings at new low”. Let us listen to the reports and make our own judgements as to how to summarize the results.
Posted by: Ron Flax-Davidson | December 20, 2009, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
Axelrod is partisan slime.
Posted by: Huh | December 20, 2009, 12:46 pm 12:46 pm
He should have forced the republicrats out and forced them to filibuster. The 2010 elections are 11 months away. It would have fired up the base.
Posted by: rightbehind | December 20, 2009, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
Is the new test for insanity if one notices that ObamaCare delivers 30 million MANDATED clients to the insurance and health care industry. If you check the public Congressional Record for the 111th Congress 1989-2009, you will find that Obama holds the record for Health Care contributions $39,064,681. Other top guns are McCain in second (merely $17,803,644), Kerry third and Specter third.
Posted by: stsabc | December 20, 2009, 1:03 pm 1:03 pm
America has the best politicians that “money can buy”.
Posted by: Temple62 | December 20, 2009, 1:06 pm 1:06 pm
Dr. Dean reported health insurance stocks were posting 52 year highs…not true… maybe 52 week highs….WLP,UNH,HUM all were +50% higher in late 2008 than their close last Friday.
Posted by: spuhr | December 20, 2009, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
Help! We are in a crisis and need health care NOW. That is why we worked so hard to put these idiots in there. I am paying $1020.00 to COBRA each month and I am sinking. It won’t be long before I lose every thing. Do we have to wait until 20014 before all of this comes into play. I will be dead by then because of lack of coverage. How can I buy anything to help the economy when it all goes to the insurance company Mr. Alexlrod?
Posted by: Linda | December 20, 2009, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
Dean was right yes the stocks his a high on Friday. and Axelrod (and I am a huge Obama supporter) axelrod is lying through his teeth. Force people to buy and the prices are also going to go up… I sat and watched (maybe 9 times) in person the details of Obama talking about healthcare at places all over NH…turning and spouting what he was saying to help him get elected. It was used car salesman crap..if Axelrod is to be believed. Why don’t you ask axelrod why they didn’t bend on tort reform. because he is lying (and I use to cheer for them). They just put the nail in dems electoral graves. When you act like a leader to get elected. You don’t get to try to CYA your way through getting your $ people what they want once you are elected. Someone call the cops and Joe Biden… someone must have stolen the spine of steel the day Obama was elected.
Posted by: dl | December 20, 2009, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
I went on record immediately after the election (and yes, I am a nobody) saying that Obama should kick Axelrod to the curb until his next Presidential campaign.. Rahm.. did you think the same thing?
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | December 20, 2009, 2:04 pm 2:04 pm
I am liberal. Most of my friends are liberal. *No one* I know believes passing this particular bill is a good idea (with the exception of some Republican friends who believe it will be Democrat’s downfall).
I am seriously mystified how anyone can believe that this cobbled up mess is good for anyone except for the most indigent amongst us.
I am also puzzled like many others as to how the Federal Government can require citizens to do business with private corporations, with running seriously afoul of the Constitution.
Posted by: mnb | December 20, 2009, 2:16 pm 2:16 pm
Another pathetic George S. interview. When are you leaving for GMA WHERE I AM SURE YOUR COOKING SHOW WILL BE MUCH MORE INFoRMATIVE THAN YOUR HARD HITTING INTERVIEWS. ARE THERE NO REAL JOURNALISTS LEFT IN AMERICA?
Posted by: jerry | December 20, 2009, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
I watched the NBC interview with Axelrod on TV this morning. In a nutshell, 80% of what he said was blowing smoke. I’ve never saw so much party line crap! I kind of wonder if these guys really believe it, or they’re deliberately trying to save face because, clearly, it’s hogwash.
Posted by: LongT | December 20, 2009, 2:35 pm 2:35 pm
Let me introduce this by saying I donated to, and worked hard for, Obama’s election. Let me also say that I was one of the disillusioned Independents last year. Now, here’s the bottom line: the ONLY people who like this bill are (1) insurance company executives (2) insurance company investors and (3) a White House who would rather claim a “win” than work for important principles. This is a total sham. Here’s why the stocks are flying: individual mandates start on day 1: in other words, insurance companies get their hands on the very people they’ve been dying to get for years. And yet the restrictions against pre-existing conditions don’t take hold until FIVE YEARS FROM NOW. Anybody want to guess what happens between now and then? If you said “the insurance companies will develop an intricate legal strategy to delay, defer, distract so that they never have to be tied down by these restrictions” or “the insurance companies will slip in language in future bills that neuters the already weak language now,” then YOU WIN. That’s exactly what will happen. And it’s exactly the reason insurance company stocks have soared. This is an outrage. Pure and simple. And Obama will never get a dime, or a minute of volunteerism, from me again.
Posted by: Average joe | December 20, 2009, 2:39 pm 2:39 pm
Anybody who believes what Axelrod and Obama are now pitching as “big wins” is a fool. They like to claim insurance companies will no longer be able to deny for “pre-existing conditions” or to do “recission” (rejecting claims after the fact). Wanna bet? Neither of those takes effect until five years from now. No company attorney worth his or her salt sitting in an insurance company is in the least bit scared. By the time 2014 rolls around, they’ll have intricate legal strategies to get around the utterly weak language that’s in these bills; that is if insurance company lobbyists haven’t snuck in language in future bills that guts what is in this. The end result will be that insurance companies get the young and healthy that they’ve coveted for so long and they’ll give up not a **** thing.
Posted by: Reality Check | December 20, 2009, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
Thank God some democrats are waking up to this BS. Apparently they’re not all blind robots. This bill does nothing to lower health costs and reign in the insurance interests. If anything it will increase costs by mandating purchasing what the are selling. I never DREAMED my country would come up with bill that would fine me if I didn’t buy insurance from a private company. This is unbelieveable. At least with car insurance you have the option of walking. There’s no way out of this unless you stop breathing.
Posted by: LongT | December 20, 2009, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
LongT, I’ve never seen something on which liberals, moderates, independents, and conservatives ALL AGREE. This bill is a massive giveaway to insurance companies. Nothing more, nothing less. And it’s an outrage. Period. If you’re a died-in-the-wool Republican, you have to be thrilled to see this pass. Democrats will sit at home next fall just as Republicans did in 2006 and 2008. Obama just backed up the truck and ran over everyone who worked hard for him. Then he got out and spit on them for extra measure.
Posted by: Amazed American | December 20, 2009, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
I knew I had felt this way before, it was years ago at Disneyland when my kids each took turns driving me around that loop in the gas powered car. We went the same route each time, I got whip lash from being tossed around, and both kids thought they were actually driving better than the other. Republican or Democrat it doesnt matter, they act like they are taking us somewhere new, the pedals are being pushed by an invisible foot, and I’m left feeling sick again.
Posted by: cindy | December 20, 2009, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
This bill stinks and if Americans would have been told that we would be FORCED into buying heath care and from WHOM this bill would not even have made as far as it did. This is an outrage! We have been lied to by our President and by the Senate. Joe Lieberman is the biggest bum of all but I’m afraid his partners in crime in the senate are none the less to blame for allowing this garbage of a Bill to come as far as it has. The people will not forget this come 2010 just because Obama had a nice photo signing this crap. Down with the Dems and republicans in 2010, it’s 3rd party or ANY other party time.
Posted by: todd | December 20, 2009, 3:35 pm 3:35 pm
It’s nice to see Axelrod stepping back the Obama administration’s harsh and slimey attempts to portray Howard Dean as irrational and out-of-touch. Shame on you, Obama, and your hacks Rahm Emmanuel and Robert Gibbs as well! You didn’t have the nerve to stand up to Lieberman but you’re perfectly willing to attack and smear Howard Dean, who has more integrity than any of the Obama team and who did more than anyone else to get Democrats elected to majorities in both houses with his 50-state strategy. I can forgive a lot of mistakes, but you should know better than that! Howard Dean is right in his assessment of the Senate health “reform” bill. Unless the Obama team heeds his warning, they’re going to have disenchanted progressives abandoning him in droves in 2010 and 2012.
Posted by: Carol | December 20, 2009, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
Howard Dean, LOL. Axelrdoddie, Big LOL, all these dems are nuts!Name one good one!
Posted by: Ann | December 20, 2009, 7:42 pm 7:42 pm
The House of Reps health care bill contains a public option, whereas the Senate bill does not. A final bill will have to be worked out and it will either contain a public option or it won’t.
Many House Democrats said that they would not vote yes on a final bill that does not contain a public option. If those Democrats break their promise they need to be tossed out in November 2010, or primaried before then if possible.
Posted by: Joe | December 20, 2009, 8:07 pm 8:07 pm
The much-touted “health care reform” pending in Congress is nothing more than a horribly watered-down version of what could have been excellent legislation. Why is it not “excellent?”
1) The Republican Party is committed to one thing: sacrificing the health and well-being of U.S. citizens to act on their hatred and bias toward President Obama.
2) President Obama was willing to compromise his ethics, and his commitment to U.S. citizens, to get “something.”
One need only watch C-SPAN to identify the farce that is House and Senate conduct. Instead of acting in the best interests of U.S. citizens, elected officials bluster and conduct themelves like 3rd-rate actors (no worse offender than Senator McCain, whom I sincerely pity).
Service in Congress has long lost its aura of serving the people. It is nothing more or less than “let’s make a deal” and serving the needs of the elected officials – not the people!
Posted by: saftgek | December 21, 2009, 7:01 am 7:01 am