Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Hillary Clinton's Attack on Bernie Sanders fails Truth-Meter

The Clintons have been well known for their political dirty tricks for many years. Now that recent polls show Bernie Sanders leading Hillary Clinton in both New Hampshire and Iowa — not to mention an endorsement by MoveOn and Vice President Joe Biden — Hillary and her campaign are resorting to the Clintons' old school method of political expediency: just lie like Hell. They are ruthless, and will do and say anything to get back into the White House.

Liar, liar, fat pants on fire!

When Hillary Clinton was campaigning in Ames, Iowa yesterday, she was particularly scathing in her assessment of Bernie Sanders' single-payer health care proposal — aka Medicare for All.

"Bernie, give him credit, has a different idea, and he’s introduced legislation — I think nine times in the Congress and the Senate — about what he thinks should be done. He wants to roll Medicare, Medicaid, the children’s health insurance program, the Affordable Care Act program and private health insurance into a national system — and then turn it over to the states to administer. If that's the kind of revolution he's talking about, I am worried."

Do we want a President who would so easily lie to our face? In her own words...

That was a total and absolute lie; and was just further proof of why Hillary can't be trusted.

(January 12, 2016) The Week, regarding Hillary's remarks:

This is absolutely false. She is referencing Sanders' single-payer bill he introduced in 2013. It would require each state to set up its own single-payer plan, and fold all existing federal health care programs, except for Veterans Affairs, into that system. While one might criticize that structure (more on this below), it is emphatically not optional. Under his plan, a federal board will oversee the system as a whole and take direct control of any state program that doesn't meet its requirements.

But what makes Clinton's remarks so infuriating is that Sanders' partially-decentralized plan is a result of trying to strike a balance between ideal policy and the many milquetoast compromises centrist Democrats like Clinton herself have written into the health care system. ObamaCare grew from the policy debates of the 1993 reform failure, which Clinton oversaw, and the 2008 campaign, in which Clinton played a leading role. Its greatest failure — the refusal of conservative states to expand Medicaid — is a partial result of its state-centered structure. Sanders wouldn't be bothering with state-by-state single-payer if Clinton, President Obama, and the rest of the party hadn't handed so many federal healthcare programs to the states in the first place.

Naturally, Clinton wants to preserve ObamaCare: "I don't want to rip it up and start over," she said at the same event. But she is talking out of both sides of her mouth. On the one hand she doesn't want to dismantle the program whose signature weakness is a result of decentralization; on the other, she attacks Sanders' proposal for being insufficiently centralized. It's doubly hypocritical given her support for her husband's welfare reform, which granted the program en masse to the states, most of which destroyed it.

In any case, it's obvious what's happening here. Clinton has been flagging in the polls of late, and as usual she's turned to fighting dirty.

Chelsea Clinton is now on the campaign trail to parrot Hillary's lies, and told voters in New Hampshire Tuesday:

"Senator Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program), dismantle Medicare and dismantle private insurance. I worry if we give Republicans Democratic permission to do that, we'll go back to an era — before we had the Affordable Care Act — that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance."

During an interview on CNN, Democratic strategist David Axelrod criticized the Clinton campaign for having Chelsea Clinton take a shot at Bernie Sanders saying: "It wasn’t an honest attack."

And while speaking to CNN's Dana Bash, Bernie Sanders said: "As much as I admire Chelsea, she didn't read the plan. And where she is absolutely wrong — this is a plan that works in 50 states in this country, whether you have conservative Republicans or progressive Democrats. It's a national program."

On “Good Morning America” (video below) Hillary Clinton doubled down on her and her campaign’s attacks on Bernie — and defended her daughter’s attacks against Bernie's single-payer health care plan, despite criticism the remark was inaccurate.

Can any Clinton be trusted? Would any Clinton say anything to get themselves or a family member elected? It appears so. These low-life scare tactics are beyond the pale. The Sanders campaign is pushing back against these despicable Clinton lies. Sanders has previously argued that under a single-payer approach, the typical family would save thousands of dollars a year because they would no longer have deductibles or co-payments — or insurance premiums or fines to pay if someone neglects to purchase a plan under Obamacare.

Bernie proposes a 2.2% across-the-board tax increase in payroll taxes, and it pays for "Medicare for All" — and upper income earners will pay proportionately higher taxes, because they earn more. But Hillary Clinton said she won't raise taxes on the middle-class to pay for such a federal program. That's because, to her, "middle-class" means anyone making up to $250,000 a year. She is so out out touch with "normal" people, she doesn't realize that $250,000 a year is the top 1% of wage earners.

Sanders spokeswoman Arianna Jones said in a statement Tuesday. "A Medicare-for-all plan will save the average middle-class family $5,000 a year. Further, the Clinton campaign is wrong. Our plan will be implemented in every state in the Union regardless of who is governor."

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 58% of the public favored making Medicare available to all Americans. What's more, Gallup data shows that patients covered by Medicare or the Veterans Affairs department (which Sanders' bill would preserve) are more satisfied with their coverage than Americans covered by private health insurance plans. And 81% of Democrats support single payer.

9 comments:

  1. If you want more-of-the-same from establishment politicians that favors big corporations and the very rich, then vote for Hillary Clinton.

    Washington Post (Jan. 13, 2016) : "The Democratic establishment does not want Clinton to lose, and she continues to gather up the endorsements of establishment figures and elected officials."

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/blogsandcolumns/clinton-increasingly-vulnerable-and-ultimately-invincible/2016/01/12/4f2ef296-b962-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html

    Washington Post (Jan. 12, 2016) But Hillary says: “Don't talk to me about standing up to corporate interests and big powers. I’ve got the scars to show for it, and I’m proud of every single one of them.” [Yes, all those speeches the bankers paid her is proof of that.]

    Hillary Clinton spoke about her role in the White House Situation Room during the Osama bin Laden raid, calling it “one of the most tense days of my life.” [But wait a minute. Didn't she claim her and her daughter dodged sniper fire while in Bosnia?]

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/12/clinton-rips-into-sanders-as-her-iowa-lead-vanishes/

    Washington Post (January 11, 2016): New polling out over the past 24 hours suggests that Bernie Sanders is in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton in Iowa [and ahead in New Hampshire]. Those results come as Clinton is upping her attacks on Sanders over his past votes on gun control measures. Tad Devine, Senior Advisor to Bernie Sanders, said:

    "Bernie Sanders earned his D- lifetime rating from the NRA, as well as his most recent rating of F. He has supported a ban on assault weapons since the late '80s ... He has supported background checks as well, and supports a law preventing straw purchases of guns. Bernie supports President Obama's executive actions on guns, and the president's efforts to take on the gun lobby." [He will revisit the issue of limited immunity for gun manufacturers.]

    Bernie Sanders is a better general election candidate than Hillary Clinton for Democrats because "Democratic and Republican identification are near historical lows. Independents, for the fifth consecutive year, comprise over 40 percent of the American electorate ... Bernie is by far the strongest candidate for the Democrats because of his core strength with independents." [And Independents don't want more-of-the-same from establishment politicians.]

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/11/heres-exactly-how-bernie-sanders-can-beat-hillary-clinton/

    Republican candidate Carly Fiorina posted on Facebook: “We cannot elect Hillary Clinton to the White House. She has promised throughout her campaign to extend and expand Barack Obama’s failed policies. And, like this President, she has always put politics ahead of problem-solving. She lacks a track record of leadership and accomplishment. She has lied. It is the Clinton way. We need a nominee who can beat Hillary and who will finally hold her accountable. One thing is clear: Hillary Clinton will wipe the floor with Donald Trump.” [If Hillary will wipe the floor with Trump the same way she wiped her email server, then Democrats are in big trouble if Bernie isn't nominated.]

    https://www.facebook.com/CarlyFiorina/posts/10157021832430206

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  2. U.S. News and World Report (Jan. 13, 2016) Hillary Clinton's Health Care Attack Makes No Sense:


    "The Clinton camp is lambasting Bernie Sanders' health care plan, but its critique is blatantly dishonest. Clinton is lambasting Sanders' proposal for a universal, single-payer health care system. And she's doing it in a pretty dishonest way. Clinton's daughter Chelsea got in on the act, too, in an even worse manner, claiming that Sanders wants to "dismantle Obamacare." This is mostly rank nonsense. A single-payer system, like it does in many other countries, would cover everybody, period. To say otherwise is either willfully misunderstanding how it would work or simple scaremongering."

    http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/articles/2016-01-13/hillary-clintons-bizarre-attack-on-bernie-sanders-health-care-plan

    * NOTE: Senator Bernie Sanders and professional journalists in the mainstream media hate to use the word 'liar".

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  3. UPDATE: Today "The Nation", America’s oldest weekly magazine, just endorsed Bernie Sanders. The Nation only endorsed twice before: Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Obama in 2008.

    http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-for-president/

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  4. Netroots Petition -- January 13, 2016

    Tell Hillary Clinton to Stop Lying About Single-Payer

    https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11924

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  5. On Thursday, January 13, 2016 (tonight at 6:15 p.m. Pacific Time), on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, I heard Hillary Clinton say it's important for her to win the election to "continue President Obama's legacy."

    But I thought Hillary wasn't running for Obama's (or her husband's) third term in office — so why should Obama's legacy matter to her? She's always said she was going to be her own person.

    And lot of people weren't very happy with Obama giving a speech at Nike headquarters about offshoring jobs when promoting the TPP trade deal -- a deal that Hillary promoted 45 times, before she said she was against it. Is that the "legacy" Hillary wants to continue?

    And a lot of people very weren't happy that Obama extended the Bush tax cuts for 2 more years. And they weren't very happy that Obama considered using chained-CPI to limit COLAs for Social Security recipients. Is that the "legacy" Hillary wants to continue?

    Also, lot of people weren't happy about bailing out the banks, and then later not prosecuting the bankers for tanking the economy. Is that the "legacy" Hillary wants to continue?

    Hillary Clinton recently said before she wanted to "continue President Obama's legacy" -- before she was on the Rachel Maddow Show tonight -- I just can't remember when that was. But it appears she's now trying to get Obama's supporters to rally for her because she's been losing so much ground in the polls.

    And Obama is wrong — he wouldn't win a third term if he could run for President again, not if he were running against Bernie Sanders (or Elizabeth Warren). Maybe if Obama were running against Hillary Clinton again, then yes, Obama could win a third term easily.

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  6. UPDATE (JANUARY 15, 2016)

    The Atlantic:

    The gulf between the two Democrats on taxes is perhaps most evident in the debate over paid family leave. Sanders supports the FAMILY Act, which would require employees and employers to each contribute just 0.2 percent of wages, an average of roughly $2 per person, per week. Only wages up to $113,700 would be taxed, meaning the maximum contribution possible—even for the highest earners—would be $227.40 per year.

    Clinton, on the other hand, would rely on increased taxes on only the wealthiest Americans to fund paid leave. According to her campaign website, “American families need paid leave, and to get there, Hillary will ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share. She’ll ensure that the plan is fully paid for by a combination of tax reforms impacting the most fortunate.” Clinton has pledged not to raise taxes on middle-class families, which she defines as those making $250,000 or less annually.

    Clinton’s campaign promise to not raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000, particularly in the context of paid family and medical leave, ignores the fact that the social, economic, familial, and health benefits of the program—supported by Sanders and so many others—would exponentially outweigh the very modest tax it calls for.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/the-great-clinton-sanders-tax-divide/423318/

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  7. Recent polling suggests Hillary Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is not only ahead of Clinton in New Hampshire, but is neck-and-neck, perhaps even ahead, in Iowa.

    Clinton has responded to the adversity by doing, frankly, what Clintons always tend to do -- going on the attack. What Clinton has recently come up with, however, is strategic madness.

    The most astounding mistake Clinton has made in recent days is the way she’s gone about competing with Sanders on the issue of health care. Sanders favors a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system. Clinton would prefer to make incremental expansions to Obamacare.

    Clinton’s gone all the way 'round the bend and has decided to ramp up unnecessary fearmongering, dispatching her daughter to New Hampshire to darkly warn that Sanders is gonna take everyone’s health care away.

    Of course, this is not true. Under a single-payer system, everybody gets health care. That's the entire point, as Hillary Clinton well knows. Chelsea Clinton knows it too. Chelsea Clinton has a masters degree in public health from Columbia. She knows exactly how what she’s saying obfuscates the issue.

    The Democratic Party has been advocating for a single-payer health care system since the Truman era. Hillary Clinton herself said in 1994 that a single-payer system was all-but politically inevitable, and advocated making Medicare available to all Americans in 2008.

    Politicians don't win races by trying to pull the wool over their potential supporters' eyes about core policy beliefs they have held for decades. Clinton's cynical, dishonest assault on single-payer is consistent with the weird, sinister turn her campaign made at the outset of 2016 ...

    This is not a battle of ideas; it’s an investment in cynicism. And it's hard to avoid a few ugly conclusions. Clinton has not learned from the mistakes of 2008. She does not understand the Democratic Party's base. She does not respect the activists and intellectuals who have fought to establish the party's economic policy agenda over the past 50 years. And she thinks voters in early primary states are dumb enough to fall for obvious dishonesty, just because they already like her.

    But here's a hard truth: No Democratic president is going to be able to enact any version of his or her policy agenda with a Republican Congress. Either Sanders or Clinton will be playing defense on Obama's legacy for at least one term in office. There is almost no chance of actual liberal legislating before 2020.

    The Democratic primary is two things. One, an authenticity contest ... Two, a statement of the party's purpose ... Clinton's recent domestic policy offensive fails on both fronts.

    Nobody really believes that a woman who served on the board of Walmart when her husband was governor of Arkansas and who made millions of dollars giving speeches to big banks and private equity firms is a populist Democrat. And nobody really believes that a woman who previously advocated for single-payer now thinks it will destroy Medicare ...

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-is-botching-this_569808a9e4b0778f46f8b31b


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  8. County state’s attorney investigating Martin O’Malley furniture purchase.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/county-states-attorney-investigating-omalley-furniture-purchase/2016/01/14/b34646b2-bb24-11e5-829c-26ffb874a18d_story.html

    Look what happened when the Clintons left the White House. What is it with Democrats and furniture?

    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121856

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  9. Clinton’s Attack on Sanders’ Health Plan

    Fact Checking Chelsea Clinton on Health Care

    Posted on January 15, 2016

    http://www.factcheck.org/2016/01/clintons-attack-on-sanders-health-plan/

    ReplyDelete