Grayson Lying Again
If Alan Grayson keeps up this pattern of telling bald-faced lies, people will soon mistake him for Valerie Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson. Since Rep. Grayson first took to the House floor, Rep. Grayson has been shameless in his mischaracterizations of the Republicans’ health care plan. As I noted here, Rep. Grayson knows he’s lying because the Republicans have posted their plan on their solutions website:
The Republican plan implements comprehensive medical liability reform that will reduce costly, defensive medicine practiced by doctors trying to protect themselves from overzealous trial lawyers. Additionally, it provides Medicare and Medicaid with additional authority and resources to stop waste, fraud, and abuse that costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year.
To lower the costs of health care, the Republican plan increases fairness in the tax code by extending tax savings to those who currently do not have employer-provided coverage but purchase a health plan on their own. This provision would provide an “above the line” deduction that is equal to the cost of an individual’s or family’s insurance premiums. The plan also provides immediate substantial financial assistance, through new refundable and advanceable tax credits, to low- and modest-income Americans so all Americans have access to health coverage.
I also noted that Rep. Grayson knows about the bill co-sponsored by Reps. Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes and Sens. Tom Coburn and Richard Burr. Rep. Ryan was nice enough to talk about the bill in this interview I did with him:
1. Here in Minnesota, there are 65 separate mandates on health insurers, all of which drive up the cost of a health insurance premium. With Ted Kennedy & Co. writing health care ‘reform’, isn’t it likely that their legislation will contain lots of expensive mandates? Wouldn’t that necessarily drive up health care costs?
Yes. That is one of the major problems with a public plan. Insurance shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. The public plans being proposed by Ted Kennedy and others will likely mandate a lot of coverage that not everyone needs, making it more expensive for everyone. We’ve seen this problem at a state level where a state mandates coverage for something like hair regrowth formula, that only a small percentage of the population even wants access to, but ultimately, those mandates drive up the cost of insurance for everyone, even those who don’t use much coverage at all. The Patients’ Choice Act addresses this problem by allowing insurance plans that sell health insurance through state exchanges to be exempt from these mandates. These plans only need to meet the minimum benefit standard prescribed by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan. People need to be able to purchase health insurance that isn’t heavily loaded with mandates.
Should we believe anything Rep. Grayson says when all this information about a high profile piece of health care reform legislation is available? People are free to decide for themselves but I’m not buying Rep. Grayson’s shtick. Rep. Grayson’s fundraising letter is as filled with hyperbole as an Al Gore speech on global warming. Here’s a sample of Rep. Grayson’s fundraising letter:
Democrats are for health care reform. Republicans are against health care reform and quite simply, Barack Obama.
If Barack Obama were somehow able to cure hunger in the world, the Republicans would blame him for overpopulation.
If Barack Obama could somehow bring about world peace, they’d blame him for destroying the defense industry.
In fact, if Barack Obama has a BLT sandwich tomorrow for lunch, they will try to ban bacon.
I hope Florida’s Republicans hang these statements around Rep. Grayson’s neck, then tell voters, quite justifiably in my opinion, that Rep. Grayson doesn’t have the integrity or the gravitas required to represent Floridians in Washington, DC.
That he thinks he can tell these lies to his constituents speaks volumes about his attitude towards them. Let’s hope his constituents give him a rude retirement party 13 months from now for treating them with such condescension.
Technorati Tags: Tyrants, Alan Grayson, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame, President Obama, Fundraising, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog