Liberal Media Lie about Congressional Override of Bush Veto...Kirsten Powers Only Lib to Admit Error

When liberal pundit Kirsten Powers went on Sean Hannity's show, "Hannity," she claimed that President George W. Bush’s veto of the bill that included the end-of-life provision was “not true.” based on this column in The Hill:

"The Medicare policy will pay doctors for holding end-of-life-care discussions with patients, according to the Times. A similar provision was dropped from the new healthcare reform law after Republicans accused the administration of withholding care from the sick, elderly and disabled.
However, an administration spokesman said the regulation, which is less specific than the reform law’s draft language, is actually a continuation of a policy enacted under former President George W. Bush.
“The only thing new here is a regulation allowing the discussions … to happen in the context of the new annual wellness visit created by [healthcare reform],” Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin told The Wall Street Journal.
In 2003, Medicare added a consultation visit for seniors new to the program, according to the Journal. Another 2008 law, enacted under Bush, said the visit can include “end-of-life” planning discussions."


SCHLAPP: And government itself, let me tell you, the language here right, the language is different. They made the language worse, instead of doing this once every five years, now the Obama administration is allowing this to happen every year and actually reimbursing doctors to do it every year. So, that’s quite a slight of hand. And doesn’t government — aren’t they a little conflicted here? They have to find this huge health care savings for seniors at the same time they’ve become the counselors to seniors in their end of care decisions?

POWERS: Where was your outrage in 2008 when the Bush administration said that Medicare would reimburse end of life counseling?
SCHLAPP: It was a veto that was overridden by the Democrats. So, I give President Bush credit for vetoing that bill.
POWERS: No, it was a 2008 law. I mean, I don’t know what are talking about.
SCHLAPP: Yes, that became law over the president’s veto.
POWERS: No, that’s not true.

Yeah. It kinda was true, actually.

President Bush vetoed the 2008 bill and the Democrats, along with some “good-willed” Republicans overrode Bush’s veto forcing him to sign the legislation into law. The bill dealt with doctors’ reimbursements and more, but the Democrats slipped in the end-of-life planning by opening up the Social Security Act. Once the act is changed, it is difficult to amend again and allows for tinkering with the Medicare fee schedule.

For the record, here is the text that the Democrats changed:

(b) Revisions to Initial Preventive Physical Examination-

(1) IN GENERAL- Section 1861(ww) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395x(ww)) is amended–

(A) in paragraph (1)–

(i) by inserting ‘body mass index,’ after ‘weight’;

(ii) by striking ‘, and an electrocardiogram’; and

(iii) by inserting ‘and end-of-life planning (as defined in paragraph (3)) upon the agreement with the individual’ after ‘paragraph (2)’;

So anyways, Powers was wrong on national television because of a liberal meme that she just went with. She eventually strayed from the typical liberal practice of never having to say your sorry and actually corrected herself via Twitter:

But before that, when she found out the truth (that had already been told to her by Schlapp, as a typical lefty pundit, she ignored all facts and stuck to her misinformed liberal talking points.

The Hill and Politico have still not corrected their stories. Politico's actually goes out of its way to further advance the bogus blame by interviewing Richard Sorian, assistant secretary of Public Affairs for HHS and allows him to spew more propaganda "elaborate":

"Sorian also clarified that it was the Bush administration that first implemented regulations regarding end-of-life counseling. The wellness visit began as a “Welcome to Medicare” exam, which was created by the Republican-led Congress in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. In 2008, when Democrats held the majority, Congress passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, which modified the exam to include end-of-life planning. The Bush administration first implemented regulations that included the end-of life planning as part of the wellness visit created in MIPPA."

Jeez. if only the French fought this much when they knew they were beat.