Sunday, March 16, 2008

Hillary Clinton Lying About Child-Care Bill


One of Hillary's strongest stump speeches is that she rebounded from her universal health-care fiasco and got a child health care bill passed.

Oops. Doesn't look like it. The White House and Bill Clinton opposed Ted Kennedy's S-Chip plan and Hillary was nowhere to be seen. Kennedy forged a bi-partisan majority for the bill over White House objections.

Robert Perry - Consortium News:
According to people familiar with the history of the S-CHIP program, Clinton’s account is essentially false or – at least – a gross exaggeration.

In her memoir, Living History, the S-CHIP law merited only a brief reference at the end of a long paragraph in which she asserts, “I worked behind the scenes with Senator [Ted] Kennedy to help create the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

However, according to a Boston Globe examination of the program’s history, Clinton “had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress.” The Globe article by Susan Milligan quoted key participants in the law’s passage as having little or no recollection of any legislative role by the then-First Lady.

“The [Clinton] White House wasn’t for it,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who worked with Sen. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, to write the law and to win passage. “We really had to rough them [President Bill Clinton and his advisers] up. … She may have done some advocacy [privately] over at the White House. But I’m not aware of it.”

...Asked by the Globe about Hillary Clinton’s role, Hatch responded: “Does she deserve credit for S-CHIP? No, Teddy does, but she doesn’t.”

...In Clinton’s narrative, she picked herself up from her failed health-care plan, learned some lessons, and then pushed through a slimmed-down measure (S-CHIP) that has produced important results for millions of American families.

If that story is essentially false, then she is misleading voters not only on her credentials as a bipartisan crafter of legislation but on her notion that she can bring about change through her burn-the-midnight-oil tenacity.

Barack Obama has offered a competing vision, that his ability to rally public enthusiasm for change – and his distance from the bitter partisanship of the Clinton Years – will let him transcend Washington’s divisions and achieve real progress on domestic priorities.

Though there may be merit to both approaches, neither Democratic candidate has articulated what may be the most important element in overcoming Republican resistance – winning a landslide that carries in large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
More Hillary lies are on display here.

1 comment:

Gary said...

I have an anonymous attacker that says I must be lying.

No disputes on the facts in the article I linked to, but just that I must be lying because Hillary helped her kids.

Why does she think it was Hillary and not Teddy Kennedy who got her the insurance?

Please, what are the facts? These reports from the Boston Globe and Robert Perry look very credible. Again, if you dispute them what are the facts you dispute?

Why would Hillary not highlight her actions in her books? The facts are that Bill Clinton opposed the child care bill and Hillary appears to have been silent or did not play a role.