Hannity falsely claimed Obama called insurance execs "bad people"
On his Fox News show, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that President Obama said during his health care speech that insurance company executives are "bad people," and that Obama's remarks "took [Hannity] back because it was so harsh." In fact, as was made clear by the video Hannity himself showed, Obama said just the opposite -- that "[i]nsurance executives don't [treat their customers badly] because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable."
From the September 9 edition of Fox News' Hannity:
HANNITY: One of the things, Frank, you have been very, very clear about -- and I think our audience has learned a lot from you as we've done our dial groups and our focus groups, etc. -- is this tendency to go negative. And he had a very different tone on Monday, but when he said tonight that insurance executives are bad people, it took me back because it was so harsh, and I think unfair, but it's part of their polling. Let's roll this tape, and I want to get your reaction to it.
OBAMA [video clip]: Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest, by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage, and by jacking up rates. Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable.
HANNITY: What'd you think?
FRANK LUNTZ (GOP pollster): I think that he's trying to demonize a segment of American society, and through the work that I've done, he may be successful, Sean. Because the American people don't think too highly of insurance companies or the people who run it.
Obama didn't say insurance execs are "bad people" -- he said the opposite
Obama said insurance executives treat customers badly not "because they're bad people" but because "it's profitable." From Obama's September 9 speech before a joint session of Congress (prepared remarks):
So let me set the record straight here. My guiding principle is, and always has been, that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. That's how the market works. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90 percent is controlled by just one company. And without competition, the price of insurance goes up and quality goes down. And it makes it easier for insurance companies to treat their customers badly -- by cherry-picking the healthiest individuals and trying to drop the sickest, by overcharging small businesses who have no leverage, and by jacking up rates.
Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable. As one former insurance executive testified before Congress, insurance companies are not only encouraged to find reasons to drop the seriously ill, they are rewarded for it. All of this is in service of meeting what this former executive called "Wall Street's relentless profit expectations."
Now, I have no interest in putting insurance companies out of business. They provide a legitimate service, and employ a lot of our friends and neighbors. I just want to hold them accountable. The insurance reforms that I've already mentioned would do just that. But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange. Let me be clear. It would only be an option for those who don't have insurance. No one would be forced to choose it, and it would not impact those of you who already have insurance. In fact, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, we believe that less than 5 percent of Americans would sign up.
Hannity really does like the President, he also likes toothaches, the smell of rotting vegetables, and traffic jams.
If you think somehow the government is somehow going to do a higher qualiity and more effectient job at this I ask you to look at every other endevor the have taken on. When government is is the business no one will be honest as President Obama likes to claim it will help.
The way our leaders in both the House & the Senate have behaved both personally & fiscally, the have a lot of nerve asking us to entrust with our healthcare and financial means of providing it!
Republicans sure have proven that time and time again...
The current system has failed, dude. It's broken. BIG TIME. There' sno denying it. So don't let your irrational fears prevent the rest of us from fixing it.
You know, surprisingly I agree with you, if only partially.
I believe that nearly all the career government workers who help run our government do so with every intention to do the very best. That they collectively go out of their way to 'get er done' so that everything runs smoothly.
Unfortunately, it is the elected officials who are the usual suspects for when things go wrong in our government.
Perhaps if you looked at government through non-partisan eyes you might come to the conclusion that it is so-called campaign contributions (or legalized bribes) paid to our elected officials (on both sides of the aisle) you perhaps might also decide not to be so simplistic in your attacks!
Reagan started that kind of childish thinking in the mid-eighties with his '9 most terrifying words are..." bull-dung and you my friend are proving your mental worth.
Instead of playing it simple you might want to join in on demanding a few things:
The public financing of elections
Taking away 'human rights' from corporations
And reversing all the illegal precedent that corporations are people too going all the way back to the Santa Clara County VS Southern Railroad decision where a Supreme Court clerk wrote as a side note that corporations are people, which had no legal bearing and yet has been used ever since as proof that corporations are people. Which they are not!
You want a government that works for you all the time... then dammit! Wake up and smell the coffee! Educate yourself on just how screwed we all are!
Trust me when I tell ya that this goes way beyond being just about Democrats and Republicans or left and right wings.
Government, at the career sector side works rather well! Even so, the rules get changed at the elected level and if you look, you will realize that that is where the problem exists!
That would be "for" government...
With government you have accountability - you know - ELECTIONS.
With insurance companies, you have an 800 number and a bean counter with an incentive to deny you care. No accountability except for HMO profits and CEO salaries.
"Frank is not a bad guy..he takes care of his kids...he helps out with the little league...he just beats his wife because he thinks its fun. But that doesn't make him a bad guy"
Now, I'm not suggesting what the President said was a correlation to beating your wife, but you cannot say they're [insurance companies] not bad people and then suggest they are screwing people badly because it's profitable.
I'd move on to something else to critize...really...I'm all for sending someone down the river, but let's pick on the more substantive quotes.
Hannity has a bad habbit of excelerating his rhetoric in his usual style. Yesterday, Obama was calling insurance executives "bad people." An intentional miss quote, if nothing else. Today, he may suggest that Obama said, "insurance Execustives don't care about you. They care about their profits." Again a miss quote, while being ever so slightly accurate. A couple of weeks from now Sean might say, "the September speech was filled with hatred towards Insurance Executives, who the President said, "want's to kill you for profit."
I have seen articles posted by MMfA on occasions that seemed a little nit picky at times, only to see later that the rhetoric heats up from these stepping off points. To be able to say, "MMfA reported on this date," is important for the documentation of these types of things.
This actually may go no where, or it could become the new talking point, and MMfA can show that it started off with a distortion of the truth.
For the most part... they are!
For their greedy nature and fluffy living in Fantasy-land!
President Obama does not need to explain that they are 'bad people' ... the implication is obvious and not just by the president, but by probably 200 million others as well!
I think insurance is as close as we get to institutionalized evil in America. It boggles the mind how angry people can get (if told to by Ailes and Murdoch) to defend their right to have those people in charge of their own life or death.
If you consider the industry, insurance is profitable when it's customers are well. Insuring the sick is not profitable. The best way to remain profitable is to exclude the sick or eliminate them from your customer base when they do get sick.
What I don't understand about the public option is if the purpose is to insure those with no insurance, then why would the insurance companies mind? They don't want to insure them. Personally, I do not care if the government establishes a public option, but I would think that creating a government health system requires honest debate.
I imagine it goes like this: "We live in the greatest nation on Earth. We have the best health care in the world. Now, socialists and liberals want to destroy it, and are planning a government takeover of it. This is something Bill Ayers, Van Jones and Reverend Wright have wanted for a long time, because they hate out freedom."
That being said I'll add my own 2 cents. Many insurance execs are bad people.
Later, with Malkin, he couldn't understand why "profit" has become a bad thing, why there is a war against people making a profit.
Will Gordon Gekko be his next guest, I hope Oliver Stone writes these characters into his sequel of "Wall Street"
So, InSannity lied some more, stating that he said Mr. Obama "obsensibly" called insurance executives bad people because they want to make a profit.
Or is that two lies?
Does this man have no shame?
You betcha!
"Insurance executives don't do this because they're bad people; they do it because it's profitable."
Clearly ALL of the words Hannity claims are there! Only a nuancing liberal would insist on looking at context (and the odd skipped word or two) to ascertain meaning.
They do this as if there is no internet, where (le GASP!) one can actually look for themselves. The text of Obama's speech, as well as the video, tell the truth. Of course, Hannity can't be bothered to live up to mindFox's "slogan" of Fair and Balanced (it's not), because it'd prove him wrong. MindFox is acting like we are all stupid, as well as Kool-Aid drinkers of their mindless drivel.
And they wonder why MMfA exists. Tuh-riffic.