Kristol: ‘I Didn’t Watch’ The Health Care Summit, But I’ll Comment On It As If I Did

By Faiz Shakir

On the Fox News Sunday roundtable this morning, the panelists discussed President Obama’s health care summit. NPR’s Mara Liasson said that while it may have been “political theater,” it was also “very clarifying” because it “laid bare exactly where the two parties stand.”

Host Chris Wallace asked Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, “Have you been clarified?” — leading to this candid acknowledgement from Kristol:

KRISTOL: No, but I didn’t watch it, so — (laughter). I have a life. (laughter)

Everyone on the panel, particularly Wallace, appeared to find Kristol’s admission quite hilarious. More disturbing, however, was that Kristol continued to opine on the health care summit as if he did indeed watch it:

KRISTOL: You compared it at the beginning of the hour to a dog-and-pony show, and I thought to myself, that’s really an insult to dog-and-pony shows. I like the dog shows there on the Animal Planet. … Many people were impressive. The President showed his usual professorial ability to sort of say certain things and highlight certain facts, or alleged facts.

Kristol of course couldn’t comment on what “certain things” or “certain facts” were particularly insightful, since he “didn’t watch it.” Being knowledgeable on the subject matter apparently isn’t a requirement to be a Fox News pundit. Watch it:

Introducing the panel, host Wallace asked Liz Cheney how her father was recovering from his mild heart attack. “He’s doing well,” she said, noting that he was “probably watching” Fox News this morning. “We’ll try to do nothing to upset him,” Wallace responded.

Let them eat applesauce: Right-wing media mock the uninsured

Research Department

Right-wing media figures have mocked Democrats' descriptions of hardships faced by their constituents who lack health insurance, including a story Rep. Louise Slaughter told about a woman who wore dentures that previously belonged to her dead sister. For example, Rush Limbaugh said, "So if you don't have any teeth, so what? What's applesauce for?"

Media conservatives ridicule the uninsured

Limbaugh: "What's wrong with using a dead person's teeth? Aren't the Democrats big into recycling?" Responding to Slaughter's account, which he called the "sob story of the day, Limbaugh stated:

LIMBAUGH: You know I'm getting so many people -- this Louise Slaughter comment on the dentures? I'm getting so many people -- this is big. I mean, that gets a one-time mention for a laugh, but there are people out there that think this is huge because it's so stupid. I mean, for example, well, what's wrong with using a dead person's teeth? Aren't the Democrats big into recycling? Save the planet? And so what? So if you don't have any teeth, so what? What's applesauce for? Isn't that why they make applesauce?

Limbaugh previously told a caller who could not afford the $6,000 it would cost to treat a broken wrist that he "shouldn't have broken [his] wrist."

Beck mocks Slaughter's story: "I've read the Constitution ... I didn't see that you had a right to teeth." On his February 26 radio show, Glenn Beck played an audio clip of Slaughter's account then said, "I am wearing George Washington's dentures right now. I'm wearing his teeth right now." He later added, "I just like wearing dead people's teeth. But in America -- I'm sorry, I didn't know that that was -- I've read the Constitution before. I didn't see that you had a right to teeth." Echoing Limbaugh's remarks the previous day, Beck stated, "The environmentalists should be all over Slaughter. 'How dare you say that?' My gosh, they're just recycling. They're just reusing."

Beck sidekick uses baby voice to mock letters Obama receives. On Beck's February 25 radio show, co-host Steve "Stu" Burguiere stated that Obama "gets 10 letters, Glenn, every night." Co-host Pat Gray asked, "From 2-year-old girls?" Then, one of the co-hosts started speaking in a baby's voice: "I have no health care, Mr. Pwesident, and I have no feet and no tonsils because doctors took 'em out."

Conservative blogger Pamela Geller linked to an audio clip of the segment, which she wrote was "[d]a best! the funniest thang evuh!"

Gateway Pundit attacks Slaughter's "sappy lib sob story of the day, hands down." On his Gateway Pundit blog, Jim Hoft linked to a video clip of Slaughter telling the story about the dentures under the headline, "Horror! Lib Dem Claims Her Constituent Wore Dead Sister's Teeth (Video)." After declaring the account the "sappy lib sob story of the day, hands down," Hoft wrote: "Will Obamacare buy me glasses and contacts? Will Obamacare buy me a gold tooth in the front of my mouth with a little heart on it?"

Ingraham: "Louise Slaughter won the Olympics of sob stories." On Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, radio host Laura Ingraham said she "liked the dueling sob stories, OK? One Democrat was trying to outdo the next on the sob story about how rotten our health care system is. Louise Slaughter won the Olympics of sob stories by saying one of her constituents had to wear her sister's dentures. OK? It got so bad with the health care system." She later added, "You had Harry Reid on the cleft palate with his -- I mean, the whole thing was ridiculous."

Fox Nation labels anecdote "Summit Insanity." From The Fox Nation, accessed February 25:

M.C.L Comment: In the mind of conservatives it's about who would Jesus deny help to. These are the same horde of zombies that like to tell us liberals don't have any morals yet they don't mind ignoring Jesus' principal teachings help the poor, clothe the naked and take care of the sick but three dollar gutter whores like Laura Ingraham pretty much say F them the Democrats are only trying to make you feel guilty Mr. Red State American.

And Mr.Red State American is going to nod like he always do, because Mr.Red State American has adopted the elite conservative world view of I got mine and the hell with you. But wait until Mr. Red State American get sick or someone he loves get sick than he's screaming where's my help when the medical bills start rolling in.

Mr.Red State American needs to listen to these stories because they're are one illness away from being one of these people and Mr. Red State American needs to stop listening to these scum bags on the right.. If Beck gets sick, he can reach in his pocket and pay for it, If Laura Ingraham or Ann Coulter get sick or something pop up after a weekend "exchanging" ideas with their male right wing counterparts they can reach in their pockets and pay for it, If one of Rush's Dominican lovers stab his fat ass he can reach in his pocket and pay for it and if Sean Hannity get sick or any little Hannitys get sick he can reach in his pocket and pay for it.

A guide to debunking Republican talking points at the health care summit.

By Zaid Jilani I know it's late but here ya go Today, the White House kicks off the Bipartisan Health Care Summit, which “may be the end of the beginning for health care reform.” Republicans have already declared that they would not bring new ideas to the table. They plan to reiterate their criticism of the existing Democratic legislation and speak in generalities about how the private market can lower health care costs and achieve “universal access.” Today, former Bush strategist Karl Rove instructs Republicans that it is “necessary” for them to criticize the president, because they have “facts, ideas, and most of the American people on their side.” While their poll-tested talking points may sound convincing, the ideas the Republicans are proposing actually shift the costs and risks of insurance onto individuals and divide the market into low-cost plans for the healthy and high-cost insurance for the sick. In response to these talking points, the Wonk Room’s Igor Volsky has published a Viewers Guide to the Bipartisan Health Care Summit. Here is what the GOP will say and why they’re wrong.

McCain Assails Reconciliation, Forgetting He Once Said The GOP Laid ‘The Groundwork’ For Its Use

By Ben Armbruster

Today at the White House bipartisan health care summit, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to argue against the Democratic majority using reconciliation to pass health care reform. He first claimed to be an anti-reconciliation champion, falsely equating the “nuclear option” to pass judicial nominees (which he opposed in 2005) with reconciliation in general.

He then admitted that reconciliation has been used in the past, but “never before” for something as costly has health care and that using it now would all but ruin the U.S. Senate as an institution and “harm the future of our country”:

MCCAIN: The last time when there was a proposal that we Republicans in the majority would adopt a 51 vote majority on the issue of the confirmation of judges. There was a group of us that got together and said no that’s not the right way to go because that could deal a fatal blow to the unique aspect of the United States Senate which is a 60 vote majority. And we came to an agreement and it was brought to a halt.

If a 51 vote reconciliation is enacted on one-sixth of our gross national product. Never before has there been –- there’s been reconciliation but not at the level of an issue of this magnitude and I think I could harm the future of our country and our institution which I loved a great deal for a long, long time.

Watch it:

First, the “nuclear option” McCain referred to is not synonymous with “reconciliation” in general. It is the latest dishonest GOP talking point simply meant to derail health care reform.

Second, and most hypocritical, McCain himself has previously supported using reconciliation to pass major legislation and just last year, conceded that the GOP has no case in arguing against its use:

MCCAIN: I fully recognize that Republicans have in the past engaged in using reconciliation to further the party’s agenda. I wish it had not been done then, and I hope it will not be done now that the groundwork has been laid.

Not only has reconciliation been used on countless occasions in the past, it’s simply not true that “never before” has it been used on legislation as big as the Senate’s $900 billion health care bill. The GOP majority used reconciliation to pass President Bush’s tax cuts, which have so far cost the federal government nearly $2 trillion and continue to add to the deficit. The CBO, meanwhile, said that the Senate’s health care bill yields “a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion” over 10 years. PolitiFact.com noted that it’s “probably true” that Bush’s tax cuts cost more than the Senate’s health care bill.

Moreover, NPR noted recently that “for 30 years, major changes in health care laws have passed via the budget reconciliation process.”

Boehner exhorts House GOP to ‘crash the party’ that they were invited to weeks ago.

From Think Progress President Obama is arranging a bipartisan health care summit Thursday to allow both parties to have a venue to discuss their “best ideas” for reform. Republicans have since been sending “mixed signals” about the President’s invitation, continuing to urge bipartisanship but decrying the President’s attempt at it, sometimes in the very same press release. House Minority Leader John Boehner suggested that the summit was “some kind of trap.” Rep. Tom Price called it a “Hollow PR Blitz.” Now that House GOP leaders have finally committed to attending, however, they’re facing a new PR problem: selling the decision to their own caucus. Minority Leader John Boehner took his best shot, telling his conference today that he has decided to attend in order to “crash the party:”

According to a House GOP leadership aide familiar with the top-ranking Republican’s remarks at the weekly closed-door conference meeting, Boehner appealed to skeptical Republican lawmakers, saying, “We shouldn’t let the White House have a six-hour taxpayer-funded infomercial on ObamaCare. We need to show up. We need to crash the party.”

It hardly needs mentioning that Boehner cannot crash a party to which he was invited from the start.

Obama challenges GOP on health care, boosts Reid

By BEN FELLER

HENDERSON, Nev. – Days before hosting an intensive health care summit with both Republicans and Democrats, President Barack Obama made a fervent push for his overhaul, calling it critical not just for the millions without insurance but for the entire country's economic well-being.

"It is vital for our economy to change how health care works in this country," Obama said Friday at a town hall meeting in a high school gym. "Don't let the American people go another year, another 10 years, another 20 years without health insurance reform in this country."

The president's plea for his top domestic priority, which faces an uncertain fate after nearly a year of work in Congress, earned him huge applause. He said the drawn-out effort has cost him politically, and also has undercut the standing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Obama was in Nevada to help the Senate leader survive a tough re-election fight this year — a race that could have a big impact on the balance of power in Washington and the fate of Obama's own proposals on health care and beyond. Obama needs to protect every vote he can in the Senate if his own agenda is to succeed.

"Health care has been knocking me around pretty good," Obama said. "It's been knocking Harry around pretty good."

But the president suggested that was due more to misinformation about the plans than to general unpopularity of the overhaul, and he defended the Democratic bills that have passed both houses of Congress, but have not been reconciled into one piece of legislation.

The president's bipartisan summit is being held Thursday. He dared Republicans to present a proposal addressing the uninsured and rising medical costs, rather than merely saying no to Democratic approaches.

But the summit approaches with hardly a feeling of cooperation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Obama and the Democrats are offering "a partisan bill devoid of support from the American people."

Reid's Washington office said the senator will support allowing the government to sell health insurance in competition with private insurers if the White House and Democratic leaders decide to push a health bill with no GOP backing.

Many conservatives and some moderates oppose the so-called public option. It's in the bill the House passed last year, but not the Senate version. Some congressional Democrats say they doubt the White House will include a public option in the proposal it will unveil Monday.

The Nevada appearance was billed as focusing on the economy but turned into an extended campaign plug for Reid, seen as one of nation's most vulnerable incumbents in the November elections. Reid introduced Obama and then sat behind him, basking in each applause line.

Obama wrapped his arms around Reid at the start of the event and embraced his work throughout. The president rarely missed a chance — on the economic stimulus plan, on health care, on the effort to regulate big banks — to put himself and Reid in the same sentence.

The goal was to shift the emphasis from the unpopularity of some of Reid's votes to, in Obama's view, the courage it took to take expensive steps to save the economy. "Sometimes he takes his licks," Obama said of Reid. "But he gets back up. Harry Reid has never stopped fighting."

The Republican Party wasn't impressed. "Harry Reid has been nothing but a fierce partisan in Washington and a quick visit from President Obama won't save him this November," said Jahan Wilcox, spokesman for the Republican National Committee in Washington.

The seven questions Obama took focused heavily on health care and the economy, giving the president an opportunity to dig into his standard talking points on those topics and to link the two issues.

Outside the school, about three dozen protesters waved signs. They showed dissatisfaction over a variety of issues, including the economy, health care and illegal immigration. "Dump Reid and Obama," said one sign.

Carla Montemayor, 61, from Henderson said she voted for Obama in 2008 but probably would not do so again. "I feel that he wasted time wooing the Republicans, trying to woo them over," she said. "He forgot about the jobs."

The president's appearance served many missions.

• He announced a $1.5 billion boost in public money to help people struggling to afford their mortgages to keep their homes, targeting the five states, led by Nevada, that have been hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis. "Government alone can't solve this problem," Obama said. "But government can make a difference." It was the latest move by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession that is taking an election-year toll on Obama and his party. The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program.

• Also helping Reid, Obama tried to soothe hard feelings in Las Vegas, where leaders say the president has singled out Sin City as a symbol of irresponsible spending, particularly when he said people shouldn't gamble in Vegas with their college funds. He capped his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce, where he delivered an apology — of sorts.

"Let me set the record straight, I love Vegas — always have," he said.

"It wasn't meant to be a shot," Obama said of his college savings remark. "I think everybody would agree that the only place people should spend their college savings is in college. ... But I understand how hard things have been here."