Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Arizona's twin embarrassments, Senator Obstruction, Jon Kyl, and Senator McNasty, John McCain are both congenital liars.
But Senator Obstruction was really over-the-top, disingenuous, pants on fire liar on Wednesday repeating the GOP talking point of the day:
Sen. Kyl: It is reported that the speaker has already said that she has the process for reconciliation figured out. It was never designed for a large, comprehensive piece of legislation, such as health care, as you all know. It‘s a budget exercise. And that‘s why some refer to it as the nuclear option.
No, no one does, senator. Nothing is further from the truth, and this congenital liar knows it. It is an entirely fictionalized GOP talking point. Yet the corporate media, like the good little stenographers they are, repeat this blatant lie without ever calling out Sen. Kyl for his blatant lie. The corporate media amplifies the right-wing media echo chamber (i.e., FAUX News) that intentionally misinforms the public.
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From 'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Wednesday, February 24th:
MADDOW: Republicans have, indeed, used reconciliation repeatedly to pass their own agenda items. They used reconciliation to pass not one, but two giant tax cuts during the Bush administration.
You want to say reconciliation was never used to change the health care system, Senator Kyl?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KYL: It was never designed for a large, comprehensive piece of legislation, such as health care, as you all know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Actually, that‘s completely, utterly 100 percent, knowingly wrong. That is not true at all, Senator Kyl. And you know it‘s not true.
Reconciliation is how the health care system has been essentially formed in this country, over and over and over again.
You ever heard of COBRA? COBRA is the law that lets people keep their employee health insurance for a while after they‘ve been laid off. You want to know what the “R” in COBRA stands for? “Reconciliation.” Oh, yes, look at that.
In 1986, Congress passed the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, COBRA, which forever affected health care coverage in this country. Do you ever heard of SCHIP, the State Children‘s Health Insurance Program? CHIP was created in a budget reconciliation bill in 1997.
Reconciliation is how we make changes to our health care system. As NPR pointed out today, quote, “Over the past three decades, the number of major health financing measures that were not passed via budget reconciliation can be counted on one hand.” Health Care No Stranger To Reconciliation Process : NPR
This is how health reform is done in this country. And this effort to say that using reconciliation would be the nuclear option, that it would somehow be unprecedented is a lie. It is a lie and it is—it is disingenuous. It is disingenuous in the sense that it‘s not just a misunderstanding, they know they‘re lying about it.
And people in the media who repeat what Republicans are saying about this instead of challenging them on it are helping Republicans spread a lie.
I would call the corporate media "media whores" but that would be an unfair slander to working girls. What the corporate media does is a truly heinous crime. Media continue to push GOP rhetoric on reconciliation; For second day in a row, Wash. Post's stable of Bush speechwriters attacks reconciliation. The corporate media fails to inform the public and all too often intentionally misinforms the public to advance the financial interests of their corporate ownership and advertising sponsors. Conservative media revive "nuclear option" falsehood to accuse Democrats of reconciliation hypocrisy; Fox News continues to attempt to redefine "nuclear option".
Health care and reconciliation actually have a lengthy history. "In fact, the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process," says Sara Rosenbaum, who chairs the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University. Health Care No Stranger To Reconciliation Process : NPR:
A History Of Reconciliation
For 30 years, major changes to health care laws have passed via the budget reconciliation process. Here are a few examples:
1982 — TEFRA:The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act first opened Medicare to HMOs
1986 — COBRA: The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act allowed people who were laid off to keep their health coverage, and stopped hospitals from dumping ER patients unable to pay for their care
1987 — OBRA '87: Added nursing home protection rules to Medicare and Medicaid, created no-fault vaccine injury compensation program
1989 — OBRA '89: Overhauled doctor payment system for Medicare, created new federal agency on research and quality of care
1990 — OBRA '90: Added cancer screenings to Medicare, required providers to notify patients about advance directives and living wills, expanded Medicaid to all kids living below poverty level, required drug companies to provide discounts to Medicaid
1993 — OBRA '93: created federal vaccine funding for all children
1996 — Welfare Reform: Separated Medicaid from welfare
1997 — BBA: The Balanced Budget Act created the state-federal childrens' health program called CHIP
2005 — DRA: The Deficit Reduction Act reduced Medicaid spending, allowed parents of disabled children to buy into Medicaid