GrASSley Reverses Course: No Death Panels In Bill

Grassley Reverses Course: No Death Panels In Bill

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) acknowledged on Sunday that the claims he made two weeks ago -- that Democratic health care legislation would allow the government to "pull the plug on grandma" -- did not reflect the language of the bills.

In an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," the Iowa Republican admitted that the current legislation being considered by Congress didn't include the infamous death panel provision that would allow the government to determine who should live or die.

"I know the Pelosi bill doesn't intend to do that," said Grassley. "It won't do that," he added later.

Grassley's admission concludes several weeks of speculation as to why the senator, one of three key Republicans negotiating a bipartisan health care bill, would latch on to the infamous myth. The White House insisted that it still wanted to work with Grassley even after he made his remarks. But on Capitol Hill and outside of government, Democrats were furious that the key GOP point person for a bipartisan bill was deploying such toxic rhetoric.

But if Grassley's initial statement seemed bizarre, his explanation for making the remark was equally curious. The Iowa Republican said he was merely trying to quell concerns of constituents who had read about death panels on the internet and grew scared when they heard talk of increased government involvement in the health care system.

"I was responding to a question at my town hall meetings," he told host Bob Schieffer. "I let my constituents set the agenda. A person that asked me that question was reading from language that they got off of the internet. It scared my constituents. And the specific language I used was language that the president had used at Portsmouth. And I thought that if he used the language, then if I responded exactly the same way, that I had an opposite concern about not using end-of-life counseling for saving money, then I was answering and relieving the fears that my constituents had."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/23/grassley-reverses-course_n_266432.html

The sound is gone, but the stench lingers on.

they can do that.

next year. He is used to saying whatever he wants without being questioned. And Iowans are questioning him hard this year.

:fistbump:

more credit than people who never were. :eyes:

that's how it works with DC media.

He should be asked about every criticism whether or not he's telling the truth, or he's making shit up again like the "death panels".

are witness to his retraction? The damage has been done. Dufuss.

The only way he can undo his damage is to hang billboards in the areas he spoke out of his ass and make a public apology for being an idiot.

Apologies to all non-teabagger Iowans! He needs to hold a rally and say this to all those people he said the opposite to a couple of weeks ago..

“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the
end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma”

180?

emails began to burn up the wires in the walls and today we get this "retraction."

People read the headlines, not the corrections.

He can backtrack because that comment already is embedded in the public psyche.

that he's sounding like a senile old fool, and jeopardizing his re-election chances.

spouting this BS. Just says what the audience wants to hear. This man has never had an original idea in his whole life!

Isn't Grassley so brave admitting he was wrong about the death panels you guys? He did a big thing standing up to those republicans screaming about death panels in our bill, and it only took him two whole weeks to get the guts to do it! I'd love to have a congressman who took two whole weeks to do the right thing, and would only do the right thing after the damage had two whole weeks to sink in!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: