Harry Reid Says He Never Called ObamaCare Stories Lies

        On 26 February, 2014 Harry Reid said,

“We heard about the evils of Obamacare, about the life’s it’s ruining, in Republicans’ stump speeches, and in ads paid for by oil magnates, the Koch brothers. But in those tales, turned out to be just that: tales, stories made up from whole cloth, lies distorted by the Republicans to grab headlines or make political advertisements.”

 “There’s plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue.”

        Then on 26 March, 2014 Harry Reid said,

“Mr. President, the junior Senator from Wyoming has come to the floor several times recently, talking about the fact that examples that he and other Republicans have given, dealing with ObamaCare, uh examples that they think are bad, I’ve called lies. Mr. President, that is simply untrue. I have never come to the floor to my recollection, and I never said a word about any of the examples that Republicans have given regarding ObamaCare and how it’s not very good.”

         Here are a few videos showing Harry Reid’s comments:

 

Figure 1 (Kelly, 2014)

Figure 2 (Mass Tea Party, 2014)

 Figure 3  (SASA NEWS, 2014)

  

        In regard to the “horror stories being untrue,” Megan Kelly stated that thousands of these stories “have been coming to us from NPR, from the Associated Press, from The New York Times, from the network newscasts, from small-town papers across the country, not to mention those we brought to you directly” (Kelly, 2014). In fact, it is easy to find several articles detailing the negative impacts of Obamacare such as the stories in The New York Times (Pear, 2014) and Forbes (Cannon, 2014). It seems highly unlikely that thousands of stories from multiple sources are untrue.

        It certainly looks like Harry Reid has been caught in numerous lies. He called the Koch brothers un-American for propagating lies when he said, “It's time that the American people spoke out against this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers, who are about as un-American as anyone that I can imagine” (Memoli, 2014). Does that mean he is un-American for his apparent dishonesty? What do you think?

Bibliography

Cannon, M. F. (2014, February 27). ObamaCare's Horror Stories Are All Untrue? Really, Sen. Reid? Retrieved April 15, 2014, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelcannon/2014/02/27/obamacares-horror-stories-are-all-untrue-really-sen-reid/

Kelly, M. (2014, February 26). Sen. McConnell blasts Harry Reid's 'unacceptable rhetoric'. Retrieved April 15, 2014, from Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/the-kelly-file/transcript/2014/02/27/sen-mcconnell-blasts-harry-reids-unacceptable-rhetoric

Mass Tea Party. (2014, February 26). Retrieved April 15, 2014, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC4EN1P_bio

Memoli, M. A. (2014, February 26). Harry Reid calls Koch brothers 'un-American' over Obamacare ads. Retrieved April 15, 2014, from Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/26/news/la-pn-harry-reid-koch-brothers-unamerican-20140226

Pear, R. (2014, February 20). Public Sector Cuts Part-Time Shifts to Bypass Insurance Law. Retrieved April 15, 2014, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/us/public-sector-cuts-part-time-shifts-to-duck-insurance-law.html?_r=0

SASA NEWS. (2014, March 27). Retrieved April 15, 2014, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EthOYxwIaC0