I Reported Someone To The White House!
You may remember that the White House blog had asked people to contact the White House at flag@whitehouse.gov if they saw anything fishy being said about health care reform.
Being a patriotic sort, I reported someone this morning.
This is the e-mail I sent:
I am writing to report some inaccurate information that was dispensed about health care reform.
During his town hall in New Hampshire, President Obama claimed that AARP had signed on to the reform proposals when it had not, that a Congressman had been involved in helping to create the proposals when the Congressman in question had not, and that he, the President, had not said he supported a single payer system when in the past he had said he did.
Hopefully you can do something to help correct these inaccuracies.
- Lee
Being a patriotic sort, I reported someone this morning.
This is the e-mail I sent:
I am writing to report some inaccurate information that was dispensed about health care reform.
During his town hall in New Hampshire, President Obama claimed that AARP had signed on to the reform proposals when it had not, that a Congressman had been involved in helping to create the proposals when the Congressman in question had not, and that he, the President, had not said he supported a single payer system when in the past he had said he did.
Hopefully you can do something to help correct these inaccuracies.
- Lee
posted by A Secular Franciscan | 8:57 AM
9 Comments:
brilliant - nice work
Ha! good for you
Even if you disagree, I still think six years is long enough for someone to change his mind.
Sure, that's a reasonable amount of time to change one's mind. But that's not what he said. I was commenting on what he said.
I know you were commenting on what he said. In the context of his remarks, I could also see where he's addressing objections over the past few months, not six years.
I think you're just fishing on this one point.
I have my objections to the president's stance on this, too. I don't think he goes as far as he could go on insurance reform. No question he's walking a tightrope not only between ideologies, but also the wealth and power of insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
Brilliant!
Somehow I got on a White House mailing list, and the most recent email is asking me to agitate FOR the health care plan. I figure it happened because I have emailed the White House with my views in the past.
Maybe I should forward it back to them.
Todd - the clip is not just an isolated one from six years ago. He has repeatedly said he favors a single payer plan. Just last August - while running for Presidnet - he declared in New Mexico, for example: “If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system.”
What he has said in the past was that it may not be practical to do it now, immediately. What he has called for is changing the system and moving toward it in time (I've seen him suggest anywhere from 10 to 20 years) ... "So my attitude is let’s build up the system we got, let’s make it more efficient, we may be over time—as we make the system more efficient and everybody’s covered—decide that there are other ways for us to provide care more effectively.”
Did he change his mind? Possible, but given years of making such statements, questionable. What's more likely is that he is saying what he is saying now to throw off critics, saying what he thinks people want to hear now, to get something in place, with the hope of building on that and getting us to a single payer system. Is that lying? Just politics? Or both?
You have to remember, this is a man with a history of only telling as much truth as he needs to(Wright, Ayers, Child Born Alive Act, etc.), and of getting people to believe he agrees with them even when he may not (I heard one of his college professors in an interview say that was his reputation back then even as a student!).
Again, just politics? Maybe - but it helps make it hard to know when he is telling the truth.
From Todd (edited):
"What he has said in the past was that it may not be practical to do it now, immediately. What he has called for is changing the system and moving toward it in time (I've seen him suggest anywhere from 10 to 20 years) ..."
Well, I don't have a problem with that, as long as we get some form of insurance reform. And I don't see that's particularly deceptive. Though the president is likely to lose some support on the Left. He's also not likely to last ten, twenty years in the White House.
As for judging the president, or any other politician, I'd prefer to analyze results, not words. It's why I have little hope on Republicans being a pro-life standard-bearer. It's possible to lie 100% of the time and look consistent.
But as for your comments on politicians, yes, I agree. It's part of why I reject major party politics at the national level, and why I prefer to stay local, where the accountability is personal.
Great post, Lee. I don't suppose you'll receive a response, but if you do please post it.
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