Repealing ObamaCare = "Meaningless" "Act of Revenge"
"Given the fact that the American voters, in the midterm elections, made it clear that what they care about most right now are jobs and the economy, why go down this path at all? It almost feels like an act of revenge on the part of the Republican Party."
- Co-host Meredith Vieira on NBC's Today, January 5, asking GOP Representative Paul Ryan about a vote to repeal ObamaCare. [Audio/video (0:50): Windows Media [1] | MP3 audio [2]]
Co-host Mika Brzezinski: "Is it a waste of time? What is going on?"...
Co-host Joe Scarborough: "It is a meaningless legislative exercise, but you know what? But the base will like it."
Brzezinski: "No. Actually, people are sick of this stuff going on, useless time spent in Washington when we should be moving forward."
- MSNBC's Morning Joe, January 3.
Who Says Americans Want ObamaCare Repealed?
House Speaker John Boehner: "...I believe that ObamaCare will ruin the best health care delivery system in the world, and then, thirdly, I think it will bankrupt our country."
NBC anchor Brian Williams: "Two points: What do you say to those who would disagree that it was the best health care delivery system in the world because they, by the millions, weren't getting it? And, second, where are you getting the notion - as you said again this morning - the American people want it repealed? Our exit polling was about 48-47, very evenly split on that."
- From the NBC Nightly News, January 6. A mid-December Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll [3] found a solid majority, 59%, for repealing all or part of ObamaCare, vs. 31% who wished it left alone or expanded.
Touting Popularity of ObamaCare's "Free" Benefits
"The outgoing House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, really threw down the gauntlet in her speech, laying out the benefits Americans will get, she says Americans will get, thanks to the passage of health reform....Do you think Americans really want to lose the benefits outlined by Nancy Pelosi?...But, if repeal were to pass, all of the things that the Speaker, former Speaker, laid out there would go away."
- ABC's George Stephanopoulos to new House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Good Morning America, January 6.
"Millions of seniors are about to get their first taste of health care reform, and a lot of them will probably like it. For the first time, the 45 million seniors on Medicare can get free annual physicals, no more co-payments. They'll get free screenings for diabetes and cancer....Advocates say most of these first provisions taking effect are quite popular and will be hard for anyone to take away."
- Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson on the December 31 CBS Evening News.
Opposing Government-Run Medicine Just Like Opposing Civil Rights
"We've lived through a version of this story before, and not just with Medicare. Nearly every time this country has expanded its social safety net or tried to guarantee civil rights, passionate opposition has followed....After Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation in 1954, 101 members of Congress signed a statement calling the ruling an instance of 'naked judicial power' that would sow 'chaos and confusion' and diminish American greatness. A decade later, the Wall Street Journal editorial board described civil rights marchers as "asking for trouble" and civil rights laws as being on "the outer edge of constitutionality, if not more."
- New York Times writer David Leonhardt in his December 15 front-page "Economic Scene" column [4], "Opposition to Health Law Is Steeped in Tradition."
Katie Frets: Will GOP Ax "Be Too Sharp?" "Cuts Too Deep?"
"Republicans say high on their priority list is deficit reduction, starting with major cuts in domestic spending this year. Fiscally conservative freshmen say everything's fair game....Is there danger in your view, Congressman [Allen] West, that the ax will be too sharp, that the cuts will be too deep?"
- CBS's Katie Couric with a panel of new Representatives, January 5 Evening News.
Lack of Massive Tax Hike = Irresponsible New Debt
"I think of it as the Santa Claus deal. It's really easy to cut everybody's taxes and then have more money for poor people. Everybody's happy....Seriously attacking the deficit is going to mean looking forward to also increasing taxes. Someone's got to pay them."
- Reuters' Chrystia Freeland on ABC's This Week, December 19.
"The $858 billion price tag for this bill will be added to the already $14 trillion national debt, meaning we, our children and our children's children will likely be on the hook for the law that was passed today."
- ABC's Jake Tapper on World News, December 17. In fact, nearly 80% of the "cost" was from the $675 billion the government theoretically would have received over the next decade if all income tax rates were raised.
Eager Media Crown Obama "The Comeback Kid"
"The President could not have gotten a better send-off for his Christmas vacation....The President isn't calling himself the comeback kid, but some other folks are."
- Anchor Katie Couric on the December 22 CBS Evening News.
"You racked up a lot of wins in the last few weeks that a lot of people thought would be difficult to come by. Are you ready to call yourself the comeback kid?"
- Reuters' Caren Bohan to President Obama at his December 22 news conference.
"Hundred Year" Old Constitution Too "Confusing" to Follow"
Fill-in anchor Norah O'Donnell: "When Republicans take over next week, they're going to do something that apparently has never been done in the 221-year history of the House of Representatives. They are going to read the Constitution aloud. Is this a gimmick?"
Washington Post writer/blogger Ezra Klein: "Yes, it's a gimmick. [Laughs] I mean, you can say two things about it. One, is that it has no binding power on anything. And two, the issue of the Constitution is not that people don't read the text and think they're following. The issue of the Constitution is that the text is confusing because it was written more than a hundred years ago and what people believe it says differs from person to person and differs depending on what they want to get done."
- MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, December 30. [Audio/video (0:50): Windows Media [5] | MP3 audio [6]]
Lauding "Impressive" "Successes" of Castro's Dictatorship
"One of Cuba's greatest prides is its health care system. Cuba's government promotes the country's free and universal medical care from the moment a baby is born as the cornerstone of its communist state....How can one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere provide free care and achieve such impressive health outcomes?...There's no doctor shortage in Cuba, which means the health care system here can push doctors and nurses down to the smallest rural communities, providing a kind of care that's both personal and persistent....In an era when countries are struggling to do more for less with limited health care dollars, Cuba's successes in prevention are likely to be closely watched."
- Correspondent Ray Suarez on PBS's NewsHour, December 21. [Audio/video (0:51): Windows Media [7] | MP3 audio [8]]
Attacking the Right for Climate "Stupidity"
"If you thought the weather was bad, wait for the high-pressure system coming in from the right. With climate change deniers, it's not the heat; it's the stupidity."
- Fill-in host Sam Seder on MSNBC's Countdown, December 28.
"I Was At - Forgive the Expression - a Christmas Party"
"We just passed this huge tax cut in part because business said, you know, we have to plan, we have to know what kind of tax cuts we have. Well, these agencies, including the Defense Department, don't know how much money they've got and for what. And I was at - forgive the expression - a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this."
- NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg on Inside Washington, Dec. 17. [Audio/video (0:42): Windows Media [9] | MP3 audio [10]]
Is "Boris Karloff" Giving Orders to "Zombie" Bachmann?
MSNBC's Chris Matthews: "Let's listen to Michele Bachmann, your new boss. By the way she may be a zombie answering to somebody out there - Boris Karloff, I don't know who's giving her orders - but here she is on the debt ceiling. Let's listen to her."
Clip of Michele Bachmann: "I am not in favor of raising the debt ceiling. As a matter of fact, I have a petition that I'm urging people to sign at MichelePAC.com to urge their member of Congress not to raise the debt ceiling."
Matthews: "Do you hear that? Who does she get her orders from?"
- Matthews to GOP strategist Todd Harris on Hardball, January 4. [Audio/video (0:33): Windows Media [11] | MP3 audio [12]]
Bigoted Americans Need Muslim "Cosby Show"
"The bigotry expressed against Muslims in this country has been one of the most disturbing stories to surface this year. Of course, a lot of noise was made about the Islamic Center, mosque, down near the World Trade Center, but I think there wasn't enough sort of careful analysis and evaluation of where this bigotry toward 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, and how this seething hatred many people feel for all Muslims, which I think is so misdirected, and so wrong, and so disappointing....Maybe we need a Muslim version of The Cosby Show....I know that sounds crazy. But The Cosby Show did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country, and I think sometimes people are afraid of things they don't understand."
- CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on her CBSNews.com @KatieCouric Web show, December 22. [Audio/video (1:02): Windows Media [13] | MP3 audio [14]]
Dave Butchers History to Suggest WikiLeaks Might Have Stopped 9/11
"There is the viewpoint if WikiLeaks had been in business prior to the attack of 9/11 and we knew that George Bush had looked at a document suggesting that bin Laden and al Qaeda were interested in hijacking planes and flying them into buildings - which largely went disregarded for months and months and months until long after the attack. If we had known that, via something like WikiLeaks, we perhaps could have acted a little more alertly."
- CBS Late Show host David Letterman to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, December 15, referring to a since-declassified Presidential Daily Brief from August 6, 2001 - only a few weeks before the attacks - which warned about al Qaeda's desire to hijack planes but included no mention of flying them into buildings.
The World According to Roseanne
"All you Tea Party spokespeople, you work for the Koch brothers and they're like billionaires....The Tea Party is owned by the richest people in the world....Dick Cheney didn't earn one damn thing. Guy's never worked an honest day in his life....[Sarah Palin is] a loon and I think she's kind of a traitor to this country.... Her followers are the dumbest people on Earth....They can barely scare up a pulse. I'm serious."
- Roseanne Barr on the 9pm ET edition of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, January 5. [Audio/video (0:36): Windows Media [15] | MP3 audio [16]]
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