Clinton role in health program disputed

[sniffa]

Hillary Clinton, who has frequently described herself on the campaign trail as playing a pivotal role in forging a children's health insurance plan, had little to do with crafting the landmark legislation or ushering it through Congress, according to several lawmakers, staffers, and healthcare advocates involved in the issue.

In campaign speeches, Clinton describes the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, as an initiative "I helped to start." Addressing Iowa voters in November, Clinton said, "in 1997, I joined forces with members of Congress and we passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program." Clinton regularly cites the number of children in each state who are covered by the program, and mothers of sick children have appeared at Clinton campaign rallies to thank her.

snip

Asked whether Clinton was exaggerating her role in creating SCHIP, Kennedy, stopped in the hallway as he was entering the chamber to vote, half-shrugged.

"Facts are stubborn things," he said, declining to criticize Clinton directly. "I think we ought to stay with the facts."

snip

But privately, some lawmakers and staff members are fuming over what they see as Clinton's exaggeration of her role in developing SCHIP, including her campaign ads claiming she "helped create" the program. The irritation has grown since Nov. 1, when Clinton - along with fellow senators and presidential candidates Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and John McCain - missed a Senate vote to extend the SCHIP program, which was approved without the votes of those lawmakers.

snip

McDonough, a Democrat who has not endorsed a presidential candidate, also said it was Kennedy who developed the SCHIP idea after that meeting. "I don't recall any signs of Mrs. Clinton's engagement," McDonough said. "I'm sure she was behind the scenes, engaged in lobbying, but it is demonstrably not the case" that she was driving the effort, he said.

snip

"It was a bipartisan bill. I don't remember the role of the White House," said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who has not endorsed a candidate in the presidential race and who was the chief Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which deals with health matters. "It did not originate at the White House."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/03/14/clinton_role_in_health_program_disputed/

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. And she's trying to impress SDs? She won't this way.

Just more proof of how much she's inflated her experience to suit her needs. This is so dishonest.

[sniffa]

4. Bringing peace to Europe, and invent SCHIP

:patriot:

[Connie_Corleone]

2. She sure does love to exaggerate her "experience".

If you have to inflate your resume to make yourself seem more important, then you don't deserve to be president.

[sniffa]

5. Just a little harmless padding

and lies.

[Vinca]

3. Oh, no. First it's Hillary not making peace in Ireland, then Hillary

making peace in Bosnia with Sinbad, now no bona fide health plan credentials? I'm shocked. Just shocked.

[sniffa]

6. I know. This causing me to lose my hope for solutions, solutions for America

:cry:

[Coexist]

7. you forgot Rwanda!

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/hillarys_adventures_abroad.html

Both Bill and Hillary Clinton claim that Hillary privately championed the use of U.S. troops to stop the genocide in Rwanda. That conversation left no public record, however, as U.S. policy was explicitly to stay out of Rwanda, and officials say that the use of U.S. troops was never considered.

[MH1]

8. "no public record"

speaking of which, haven't Bill and Hillary prevented the National Archives from releasing Bill's presidential papers?

I may be mistaken or out of date on that, I seem to remember hearing it awhile ago.

Thing is, it may be that there actually IS a record, but if it were made public might not support the bill of goods they are trying to sell us.

[sniffa]

9. Yet more cause for me losing hope in solutions, solutions for America.

:cry:

[Occam Bandage]

10. So, let's break this down.

She was responsible for peace in Ireland, except she had nothing to do with it.

She was a key member of Clinton's national-security policy team, except she didn't have security clearance and wasn't given security briefings.

She was responsible for SCHIP, except she wasn't actually behind SCHIP.

Did she...did she actually do anything in the last 35 years? I mean, did she have any experience leaving the White House above and beyond what Barbara Bush has?

[Coexist]

23. there was her healthcare plan.

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. Damned when you do ... then the fuckers come after you

During the heady days of 1993 when former First Lady Hillary Clinton assembled a group of health experts to reconfigure our health-care system, liberal strategists realized that the march toward socialized medicine might be a slow and halting one. Thus, they devised several alternate routes to the promised land of a universal, government-run system.
Intriguingly, one of these fall-back scenarios bears an uncanny resemblance to the dramatic expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) now under consideration on Capitol Hill.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21705

[bicentennial_baby]

12. Yay for rightwing rags!!

[Fredda Weinberg]

13. Do you deny the facts or do you want to be a fucker too? n/t

[sniffa]

15. You people

[Fredda Weinberg]

16. Us people ... who really care about underprivileged kids ... not

the ones who use them for political show every silly season. Give credit where its due or you won't get future efforts, dolts!

[sniffa]

17. I can't believe you people

I'll reserve comment.

[karynnj]

34. She gets credit for lobbying Bill - that's what she did - and it was important

It does not mean she initiated or created it - she didn't.

[bicentennial_baby]

19. As always, Fredda keeps it civil...

Oh, wait...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5066879

[Fredda Weinberg]

24. You can't argue the facts, so you pretend to impeach the source

Well, in this case it was relevant. HRC was damned when she did then came the fuckers.

[sniffa]

26. Who are these "fuckers" you speak of?

:shrug:

[Fredda Weinberg]

28. Those who deny HRC her role in history. Good, bad, indifferent ...

she made an effort. It infuriates me to see Gore like accusations of resume padding here, when the quickest search shows that S-CHIP inherited the best ideas of her commission. I remember these events - apparently, so do those who villified her in the first place.

Fuckers, both sides.

[sniffa]

29. Ah, it's those facts again, as Kennedy said

How dare they remember them correctly, unlike some.

Let's just give her credit for lots of stuff she didn't do.

[Fredda Weinberg]

31. Kennedy can't deliver his own state. Follow him @ your peril.

I see your bias and raise your willful ignorance. It always typified the worst element of the Democratic Party and frankly, the reason we've been out of office so long. We're not exclusive, nor selective. We don't indoctrinate well nor support our own long-term activists.

Punks can scoff @ veterans of battles fought on their behalf. It has always been thus.

Congratulations ... you've fallen below the minimum expectations for this communications channel. Fortunately, in the real world, humans are more substantial than anonymous characters.

[karynnj]

36. Doesn't make him wrong or any less the person who deserves the most credit on this.

You are the one vainly insisting that HRC get credit beyond that due her on this.

[Fredda Weinberg]

38. Excuse me? There are political dimensions here - r u unaware?

And what does vanity have to do w/facts? HRC pushed universal coverage, part of the findings was the focus on the possible: childrens' insurance above the poverty line.

This was above and beyond the call of duty - HRC had the guts to push a cause she believe in. Vanity? Kids aren't a natural constituency ... they don't vote.

You're the one withholding credit due for political purposes. Sad, but part of the reason our party has such a hard time prevailing in national elections.

[karynnj]

39. Of course she was FOR these things - I said nothing to dispute that

It was the methods that she used that created a plan that had very few supporters in Congress. Part of the problem was that she excluded the Senators and Congresspeople, who had healthcare as part of their domain. She and Ira Magaziner landed in Congress with a full blown proposal that they had developed in secret. That is not the best way to win.

The facts are that people long before HRC had spoken of wanting universal healthcare - Truman was one. HRC was a baby in teh Truman years. The specific plan that became S-CHIP was from a MA plan - and I have no idea who in the MA legislature created it. The MA Senators introduced a bill in 1996 based on it and Kennedy and Hatch, with Kerry as a co-sponsor, introduced S-CHIP.

[karynnj]

35. Can you find a link that ties the people who created the MA plan to HRC?

Everything written in 1997 says what the op did, that the model was the MA plan.

[Forkboy]

40. Tough day?

You sound stressed. Maybe a nice warm bath and some cocoa is in order. :shrug:

[sniffa]

14. I'll reserve comment

See, I'm above that sort of thing. And I'm awesome. Did I ever tell you how great I am?

[karynnj]

32. Hatch and Kennedy in this article deny her involvement

The genesis of the idea behind S-Chip was the Massachusetts program passed in 2006, over Weld's veto. Kerry and Kennedy introduced a bill that was modeled after the MA plan. Interesting that Bill Clinton,neglected healthcare when he compared Weld and Kerry as they ran in 1996 in the book he insisted on releasing in July 2004 - as the two were completely opposite at that point. (But why credit John Kerry with a role in something HRC may need to counterbalance her failure in 1993 with.)

Here is a far better, more accurate and more exhaustive look at where S-Chip came from - as opposed to a right wing magazine.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=4633702

[high density]

18. No, this story has too much substance

We need to talk more about Wright.

[democrattotheend]

20. My understanding of what happened

Is that Kennedy turned to Hillary at one point to help get Bill on board with the legislation. So she did play a role, but if she is saying she helped craft it that is an exaggeration.

[beachmom]

25. Your understanding is correct. See my link to a '97 NYT article below. nt

[ProSense]

21. Hillary mailer accuses Obama of "demagoquery," Kennedy responds and a fact check on SCHIP

Hillary mailer accuses Obama of "demagoquery," Kennedy responds and a fact check on SCHIP

[beachmom]

22. Yep. Her big role was to persuade Bill not to be a jerk and back Kennedy & Hatch's funding number.

Nothing annoys me more than her lying repeatedly about this.

Here is another great article from 1997 on this:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DEFDC113CF932A2575BC0A961958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1

So who did write the original bill?

Not long before last fall's elections, Mr. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, the junior Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, introduced a bill that proposed paying for health insurance for uninsured children through a tobacco tax, a law that was already in place in their state.

[sniffa]

27. No, no, no.

As first lady she crafted the bill, introduced it in the Senate and got it passed. These are just the fuckers coming after her.

[karynnj]

37. Even more impressive is that she did it in costume

In 1996, in back to back impersonations, she first introduced the precursor bill as first John Kerry, then as Ted Kennedy. The next year, she opted for a more bi-partisan set of impersonations, appearing first as Senator Hatch, then she encored her role as Ted Kennedy.

She has never gotten the credit she truly deserves for these amazing performances - it's not easy appearing to be over 6 foot tall once, much less doing it three different times and looking extremely different in each.

[sniffa]

30. Kick for the fuckers

[AtomicKitten]

33. That's why she keeps pointing her finger at Obama - SUBTERFUGE.