Media repeat McCain's false claims about Obama's health care and energy plans
SUMMARY: The Washington Post, The Washington Times, the Associated Press, and The Hill reported Sen. John McCain's claims that Sen. Barack Obama is "offering government-run health care" and "an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling," without noting that both claims are false. Obama has not proposed "government-run health care" and Obama's energy plan calls domestic oil and natural gas production "critical to prevent global energy prices from climbing even higher."
Several print media, including The Washington Post, The Washington Times, the Associated Press -- in two separate articles -- and The Hill, reported Sen. John McCain's claims that Sen. Barack Obama is "offering government-run health care" and "an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling," without noting that both claims are false.
As Media Matters for America has noted, Obama does not propose a "government-run" health-care plan. Rather, his plan would allow individuals to keep their current insurance if they choose, or enroll in either an "approved private plan" or "the new public plan, which would offer benefits similar to what every federal employee and member of Congress gets." According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), federal employees are able to choose from "the widest selection of health plans in the country." A Q&A released by the Obama campaign says: "His plan will not tell you which doctors to see or what treatments to get. Under the Obama health care plan, you will be able to keep your doctor and your health insurance if you want. No government bureaucrat will second-guess decisions about your care."
PolitiFact.com has noted that "Obama's plan keeps the free-market health care system intact, particularly employer-based insurance. It is not a goverment-run [sic] program and is very different from the health care systems run by the government in some European countries."
Moreover, McCain's claim that Obama has proposed an energy plan that is "guaranteed to work without drilling" is false. While Obama's energy plan states that "with 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, the U.S. cannot drill its way to energy security," Obama calls domestic oil and natural gas production "critical to prevent global energy prices from climbing even higher" and proposes "set[ting] up a process for early identification of any infrastructure obstacles/shortages or possible federal permitting process delays to drilling" in Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, and Alaska.
From the Washington Post article by Peter Slevin:
Obama offered details about his approach to issues such as housing, taxes, the Iraq war and energy policy. Between snippets of speeches and endorsements from colleagues, he spoke of his mother, who died of cancer, and said, "We've been talking about the same problems for decades, and nothing is ever done to solve them."
The program ended with two minutes of live footage of Obama speaking to 20,000 cheering supporters in South Florida, where he hopes to stockpile votes in a state in which polls show him with a slender advantage. As the national audience tuned in, Obama said: "In six days, we can choose hope over fear and unity over division. The promise of change over the power of the status quo."
McCain was skeptical, likening Obama to an infomercial salesman.
"He's offering government-run health care," the Republican told a crowd in Riviera Beach, Fla., "an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling ... and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed."
From the Washington Times article:
The McCain campaign dismissed the TV spot as a mere sales pitch.
"As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales job is always better than the product," McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "Buyer beware."
On the stump, the Republican candidate himself mocked Mr. Obama's ad in similar terms, saying: "As with other infomercials, he's got a few things he wants to sell you: He's offering government-run health care, ... an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling ... and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed."
[...]
"We have to stop just talking about health care reform and lost jobs and energy independence and finally do something about it," Mr. Obama said.
He said he would pay for his plans -- expanding health care coverage, spending $15 billion a year on alternative energy projects, giving tax credits for buying fuel-efficient cars -- by cutting spending, improving government efficiency and eliminating failing federal programs.
From David Espo's Associated Press article:
Across 30 minutes, the ad blended views of Obama speaking in a setting that resembled the Oval Office, at the Democratic National Convention and elsewhere as well as scenes of Americans discussing their economic and health care troubles. His wife, Michelle, and his two daughters had cameos, and there were photos of his black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas.
Obama wrapped up his day with a rally in Kissimmee, Fla., co-starring Bill Clinton. "We have so much promise and so much peril," the former president told the crowd. "This man should be our president."
McCain sought to blunt Obama's campaign-closing pitch, lacking the funds to match it.
"He's got a few things he wants to sell you: He's offering government-run health care ... an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling ... and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed," McCain told an audience in Florida.
From Jim Kuhnhenn's Associated Press article:
Besides the Oval Office setting, the commercial included views of Obama speaking at the 2004 and 2008 Democratic conventions and elsewhere, as well as scenes of Americans discussing their economic and health care troubles, and testimonials to him by politicians and business executives.
The ad showed his wife, Michelle, and his two daughters as well as photos of his black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas.
Without the money to match the commercial, Republican rival John McCain sniped at the man and the moment.
"He's got a few things he wants to sell you: He's offering government-run health care ... an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling ... and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed," McCain said during a campaign stop in Florida.
From the Hill article:
McCain, speaking in the battleground state of Florida, compared Obama's ad to other televised half-hour product infomercials, accusing Obama of attempting to sell liberal economic policies to American voters.
"As with other infomercials, he's got a few things he wants to sell you: He's offering government-run health care, an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed," McCain said, according to his prepared remarks.
Under these guidelines
quote On the stump, the Republican candidate himself mocked Mr. Obama's ad in similar terms, saying: "As with other infomercials, he's got a few things he wants to sell you
Mr GW Bush's State of The Union presentations are also informationals ?
Don't get hung up on semantics, Wolf. Obama's 30 minutes WERE an infomercial. And from that perspective, which of McCain's campaign commercials are anything less?
They're politicians - it's what they do. There's never been a politician that got elected by remaining anonymous or obscure, or gained favor by saying things he didn't think the populace would like. Obama showed great marketing decisions during this campaign, especially saddled with a product that started out handicapped in this post-911 society (black, "Barack Hussein Obama", newcomer). This infomercial is in no way a detriment to that record. While McCain has been snorkling in the mud these past few days of the campaign, Obama furthers his momentum with a powerful 30 minute appeal based purely on his vision for the future of this country. Liberals should be waving it in the face of the conservatives, not shirking from the terminology. Yeah, it was an infomercial - selling a great product. If the Republicans had a decent product - and any brains - they'd be running their own infomercials. Trouble is, McCain doesn't have enough material to go a solid 30 minutes. Especially without referring to his opponent.
Isn't Simple Sarah worried about losing her seat on the Rapture Express if she keeps lying her a$$ off at every campaign stop?
She never had one to begin with.
Summary: The Washington Post, The Washington Times, the Associated Press, and The Hill reported Sen. John McCain's claims that Sen. Barack Obama is "offering government-run health care" and "an energy plan guaranteed to work without drilling,"
Driving to work this morning here in North Texas, I passed several gas stations selling regular for $2.159 a gallon. How many new oil wells did they have to "drill, baby, drill" in order to get the proce to drop that far that fast????? How many new refineries did they build since last week?
Gramps McCain doesn't have a clue. And neither does anybody who is stupid enough to vote for him and Caribou Barbie.
The price dropped because the futures markets are predicting a drop in demand with the economy contracting. We need new oil wells in this country in either case so that we are not buying our oil from terrorists.
Do you think lowering gas prices to slightly higher than they were at the beginning of the Bush administration was one of the planned side-effects of their destruction of our economy, or just a lucky break?
Thing is chief, we don't buy oil from terrorists. You do realize our biggest supply of oil comes from Canada right? Now, if you want to call them terrorists, you can, but I would digress that they are. Second on the list? Saudi Arabia. Last I knew, our current White House resident is TIGHT with those guys. Mexico is 3rd. Venezuela is 4th. Nigeria 5th.
When you say that we buy oil from terrorists, are you talking about Muslim countries? That, and remember, that all of the oil that we have here domestically, is only but a small drop in the bucket of what we use on a daily basis. If we drilled and tapped everything that we had, it wouldn't impact the price of the world market at all, or barely (some guess at a max it might affect prices to the tune of 1%), and we wouldn't see oil for another 10 years from these places, or get the benefit (what little there is) of it for at least that long.
What we need to do is run paralell paths. Meaning, yes, explore for oil, and maybe get the oil companies to use some of the land that they already are being leased by the government, but at the same time, we need to invest heavily in alternatives. Wind. Solar. Coal. Tidal. With a bunch of funding, these things could become viable in a shorter amount of time, and hence decreasing our need on oil.
For example, I have a neighbor, he has solar panels on his house. Do you know what he paid last year for energy last year? Nothing. Zero dollars out of his bank account for electricity. Actually, the local electric company paid him for putting electricity back INTO the grid. If everyone could do this, or even a large percentage of folks in this country, we'd use far less energy to produce energy.
This is just an example though, and I do realize that not everyone would be able to do this.
Terrorists, tourists. It's the same thing, isn't it?
Here's the thing homeskillet, we received 895,976 barrels from Canada in 2007. Saudi Arabia provided us with 541,987 barrels. Venezuela sold us 496,684 barrels. Those two combined are more than what we get from Canada. I think we can all agree to the chagrin of Bush that Saudi Arabia is not our friend. And we certainly know that Hugo doesn't like us very much. We received 413,932 from Nigeria and we all know how unstable that puppy is. So while my terrorist comment was stretched and I am glad to concede that to you I think we can all agree that we are at the mercy of dangerous people as a result of our energy dependence. I didn't even mention the other OPEC and non-OPEC countries that don't think we're the pooh.
GiGi, do you really think Simple Sarah is sitting on enough oil to replace what we buy from "turrists"? And, do you know how long it will take to get Simple Sarah's oil to the market, even if we start drill-baby-drilling today?
I think the point is.... we can go ahead and drill for whatever good it will do us, but if we don't start now on a crash program to get us off of fossil fuels, we will be at the mercy of "turrists" until the world's oil runs out. By the time we get full benefit from offshore drilling, we could have developed a hydrogen car, an electric car, better use of solar energy.... that is the only long term solution that makes sense.
He can't call Obama a Socialist without misrepresnting his plan. And now that oil is back down to what $70 a barrel the energy "crisis" seems to be over. The Saudis have been cutting production to try to drive prices back up. If it were really a crisis they wouldn't be able to control the flow of oil like that. Maybe the American consumer will learn from this.
...and an automatic wealth spreader that folds neatly and fits under any bed.
Grampy's promising a wealth spreader too, isn't he? His just works by continuing to concentrate the wealth until the rich get so rich they can't stand it, and start hiring people they don't need just to get rid of the money. It's sort of a pressure-cooker effect.
That's why he refers to it as "creating wealth", it's like the heat in that pressure cooker expanding. Or maybe like that "set it and forget it" oven in the infomercials.
I know he's also selling himself as the guy who knows how to get Bin Laden, but his deals are so crazy, he's not even allowed to give the details on TV. Please, no dealers! You don't say that out loud!
Act now! If you vote for John McCain in the next 5 days, he'll throw in a defective homeland security system and a cd of him and Gilbert Gottfried competing for the job as the voice of the AFLAC duck. HEHH? HEHHH?
The "Socialist" charge is bogus as hell. It's a talking point designed to illicit drooling from non-thinkers like Joe the F***ing Plumber. If Obama's plan is "socialism", then Simple Sarah is also a socialist for redistributing wealth from Oil Companies to her constituents. It also means that Social Security is socialism.... and we don't hear Grampy calling for the repeal of that program, do we?
We don't hear Grampy calling for repeal of any of his programs.Along with his confusion about the number of homes he owns, I'll bet he couldn't tell you how many health-care programs he has-- there's the VA, the cushy senate one, Medicare, this guys a regular pinko.
To each according to his needs...
From those to whom much is given, much is expected.
Another wise adage destroyed by the very life of George W Bush...
there is no socialism in this country. We have a government ruled by constitutional law with three equal branches of government. You have to remove the constitutional powers before socialism can be implemented. I believe the Patriot Act was the beginning of this process.
I heard some radio chatter last night where the host was implying informationals is something snake oil salesman try to sell late at night. Just sounded like another ploy for those who will not vote for Obama to diminish the man.
It's hard to tell whether people are deliberately spreading misinformation about Sen. McCain's health care plan, or if they genuinely don't understand it. Or maybe they're misunderstanding it on purpose.
John McCain's health care plan supports job-related health insurance by replacing (replacing, not eliminating) the existing tax exemption on health coverage with a tax credit that benefits all Americans, whether they have job-related health insurance or not.
Sen. McCain's $5,000 tax credit ($2,500 for individuals) will replace the tax exemption for the 59% of Americans who have employer-provided health plans with a federal tax credit that will also go to the 41% of Americans who don't get health insurance at work, giving 100% of Americans the same tax benefit. Currently, that 41% get no tax benefit for health insurance. No wonder there are so many working uninsured.
Employers will continue to offer health insurance because their business deductions stay exactly the same under Sen. McCain's plan. People will not lose their job-related health insurance, nor will they have to pay for their health insurance out of the tax credit, as Sen. Obama's campaign has claimed.
Here's how it will work: a family making $80,000 year pays 25% in income taxes. If they get a $12,000 a year plan at work (that's a really GOOD plan, the same as members of Congress get), their $5,000 tax credit will replace the existing $3,000 tax deduction (the value of their $12,000 plan at their 25% tax rate), leaving a $2,000 surplus that will be deposited into a Health Savings Account for the family's use on medically-related expenses.
Families in lower income tax brackets will get a bigger surplus, and even those in the highest income tax bracket (35%) will still have money left over for their HSA. Families which currently pay no income tax can use their refundable tax credit to buy health insurance or have it deposited in a health savings account.
For the 41% of Americans who don't get health insurance at work, the $5,000 tax credit can be used to buy a plan on the open market. That's $5,000 (or $2,500 for individuals) more help from the federal government than they're getting now.
And since Sen. McCain wants to let people buy plans across state lines and take advantage of expanded, non-traditional group plans, increasing competition and taking advantage of different mandates and lower rates in other states, that $5,000 per family ($2,500 for individuals) will go pretty far toward reducing the number of working uninsured in America. One study says 24 million uninsured families will be able to afford to buy their own plans under this plan.
Sen. McCain's plan would finally give people who don't get health insurance at work the same tax benefit as those who do. Isn't that a whole lot more fair than only giving federal tax subsidies to people who already have the advantage of employer-provided health care?
Sen. McCain's plan won't "tax your healthcare for the first time." It will change an inherently unfair federal tax exemption that only 59% of Americans receive into a tax credit that benefits all Americans. Sen. McCain's plan will help millions of Americans who can't afford health insurance to get it without forcing them into a huge new government-run health plan.
It's hard to believe that smart guys like Senators Obama and Biden think that paying taxes on $12,000 actually COSTS $12,000 (unless they think that’s how it should be….), or that $3,000 in additional tax liability (see the $80,000 income family example above) isn't less than the $5,000 tax credit that replaces it, or that there's not $2,000 left over when you subtract $3,000 from $5,000.
Hard-to-insure people with pre-existing conditions can rely on a Guaranteed Access Plan (GAP), and, no, despite the scare tactics of the other side, Sen. McCain isn't going to "cut" Medicare and Medicaid benefits to pay for it. He wants to streamline how providers are paid, expand the use of information technology, eliminate fraud and waste, get better drug prices through faster introduction of generics and safe re-importation, and reduce costs through preventive care and reducing defensive medicine - all of which will generate enough savings to cover providing a fair health care tax benefit to all Americans.
Seems to me that they're misunderstanding the plan on purpose, so they can tell lies about it in their commercials.
You forgot to mention that I will be taxed on the health care benefits I receive.
McCain is going to raise my taxes. At least Obama won't do that.