MSNBC's Chuck Todd Parrots Obama Talking Points: Will GOP 'Relitigate' Health Care?
Daily Rundown host Chuck Todd on Monday parroted Barack Obama's talking points and repeatedly wondered if the new GOP majority in the House will insist on 'relitigating health care." He began by lecturing, "Will the first month of a Republican-led House be known for relitigating the past, pushing for repeal of health care, focus on investigation?"
Compare that to President Obama during a November 3, post-midterm press conference: "We'd be misreading the election if we thought the American people want to see us for the next two years relitigate arguments that we had over the last two years." Todd on Monday mimicked, "Is that really the first impression the Republican Congress wants to leave with the American public or are they going to keep their focus on spending and the economy?"
During the piece, the MSNBC anchor talked to Republican strategist Kevin Madden and reiterated, "If you were still in your old job with John Boehner, do you want the headlines to be about investigations and relitigating health care or do you want them to be about spending and jobs and making government smaller?"
Not accepting the premise of the question, Madden, who worked on the Romney presidential campaign in 2008, retorted, "So, where you use the word investigations, I would use the word oversight. Where you would say they're looking into things that seem to be trivial, I think it's a new era of accountability."
Co-anchor Savannah Guthrie got into the act and asked of former Obama aide Anita Dunn: "So, Anita, what should the White House's response be? You could go relitigate the health care debate, if that's where Republicans want to take it or you could ignore the Republicans, say, it's the law of the land and focus on jobs and the economy."
At no time did Guthrie or Todd wonder about the fact that pledging to "relitigate" health care was instrumental in the Republican midterm wins.
A transcript of the January 3 segment can be found below:
9:00 tease
CHUCK TODD: The 112th Congress gets sworn in on Wednesday. Will the first month of a Republican-led House be known for relitigating the past, pushing for repeal of health care, focus on investigation? Is that really the first impression the Republican Congress wants to leave with the American public, or are they going to keep their focus on spending and the economy? Yesterday, with the Sunday shows, Savannah, it was interesting, the headlines seemed to be about the past.
9:13
CHUCK TODD: Meanwhile, the President returns tomorrow to that new political order. Battles ahead apparently over health care, more so than maybe he thought, spending and, of course, the debt limit. Republican strategist Republican strategist Kevin Madden is a former press secretary and incoming Speaker John Boehner and Anita Dunn was communications director in the Obama White House. Welcome to you both. Happy New Year. Happy New Year.
ANITA DUNN: Happy New Year.
KEVIN MADDEN: Happy New Year. Happy new year.
TODD: Kevin, let me start with you on the headlines that were generated off the Sunday shows yesterday. If you were still in your old job with John Boehner, do you want the headlines to be about investigations and relitigating health care, or do you want them to be about spending and jobs and making government smaller?
KEVIN MADDEN: The latter, but I do think you have to recognize that the public right now is very unhappy with the way Washington is working. So, where you use the word investigations, I would use the word oversight. Where you would say they're looking into things that seem to be trivial, I think it's a new era of accountability. And that's what people voted for when they voted for President Obama, but they were very unhappy with his performance. And now you have essentially a new Republican Congress that is bringing in an era of accountability and challenging the status quo. So, I think it's aligned with a lot of popular sentiment.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: So, Anita, what should the White House's response be? You could go relitigate the health care debate, if that's where Republicans want to take it or you could ignore the Republicans, say, it's the law of the land and focus on jobs and the economy. What do you think the White House will do?
ANITA DUNN: Well, Savannah, I think it's amusing that republicans having spent so much time in 2010 arguing that the Democrats should be spending more time on jobs and less time on health care, now spend time on health care, which is now something that's the law of the land. And they're talking about taking benefits away from people and I think that that's- you know starting the year taking benefits against people, taking protections that the insurance companies now have to give people. That people have fought for for years, right? Taking, you know, having a symbolic vote to take that away does set a tone here. I think that if, you know, the White House has the opportunities here, first of all, to define the health law in a way that it's never been defined before, because now we are talking about taking benefits away from people that they are enjoying. And so, that what the Republicans stand for. And more to the point, I think that the White House has the opportunity to really define the economic argument here, thanks to the Republicans deciding to go down the kind of investigations, take away benefits, and most importantly, abandoning the idea of pay-go for huge parts of the budget.
— Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
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Comments
They'd Better not "Re litigate It'
Submitted by JustAl on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 1:55pm.
They'd better defund it, cut it off and kill it.
RE-litigate it? It was
Submitted by motherbelt on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:20pm.
RE-litigate it?
It was never litigated the first time!
Uh, Mr. Todd....
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -Inigo Montoya
Litigate, relitigate, rethink...
Submitted by StarAZ on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:59pm.
Redo, repeal and redo, throw under the bus, drown in Slurpees...you name it. Yes!
UpChuck
Submitted by Texndoc on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 2:01pm.
Saw him on Morning Joe and when has he never just been a White House talking points shill? BTW he looks like he ate non-stop through the holidays, and is trying a rug.
Chuck
Submitted by Jerry Mack on Tue, 01/04/2011 - 11:46am.
Chuck the Parrot squawks again: Barack Hussein Obama, MMMMM
Barack Hussein Obama, MMMMM
Repeal it, Chuck.
Submitted by Red Jeep on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 2:13pm.
Relitigate nothing. Toss it. Cancel it.
Mslsd should just get a few
Submitted by Diesel on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 2:18pm.
Mslsd should just get a few robots. Be a lot cheaper than these highly overpaid dictographs.
How do you re-litigate...
Submitted by jimbo297 on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 2:25pm.
...something that's never been litigated in the first place. It's about time this monster got some actual scrutiny. You don't find out what's in a bill after passing it-someone should have told Nancy. That's the reason she's now the MINORITY leader.
It's not an either/or scenario...have votes on repealling ObamaCare every month, week, day, whatever Bohner wants, whether the bill's going to go anywhere or not. ( I can't believe it will take too much in the way of resources to offer a simple yea or nay on a repeal bill.) AND keep the promise of offering bills that cut spending on a weekly basis.
Working in the dreaded private sector, I can assure you that these two steps will increase confidence out here in uncertain-ville, and that confidence will ultimately lead to expansion and hiring. After all, isn't the reason that the economy isn't adding jobs because too many companies are "hoarding" cash (those evil fat-cat tycoons!) ? Remove the fear that govt is going to F&^% up their investment in expansion, and you'll see expansion.
What do you expect from a bunch of Mao lovers anyway?
Thank you, Jimbo
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:07pm.
That was my thought, too.
Betcha $5 "relitigate health care" is the latest and greatest talking point.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
GMTA, Blonde and Jimbo!
Submitted by motherbelt on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:22pm.
Oops...I got caught replying to a comment before I read further down...;-)
Why am I not surprised?
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:56pm.
We start yet another year mirroring each others first thoughts on a subject. :)
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Watchiing programs like
Submitted by Captain Repus on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 2:32pm.
Watchiing programs like morning joke and Todd's am show is like watching a poorly done high school debating class in which only one side showed up. These morons are too stupid to be taken seriously on any subject.
I wonder if Todd or his teen age co-host get their instructions via email from the white house like the brainless silicone blond on morning joke.
Why can't we do both...?
Submitted by NeoKong on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 2:33pm.
"If you were still in your old job with John Boehner, do you want the headlines to be about investigations and relitigating health care or do you want them to be about spending and jobs and making government smaller?"Ever hear of multi-tasking ?
Same thing
Submitted by Model850 on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:03pm.
Todd: "Is that really the first impression the Republican Congress wants to leave with the American public or are they going to keep their focus on spending and the economy?"
Uh, with cost estimates for OblunderCare running everywhere from $1.5 trillion to more than $6 trillion I'd say focusing on that is the same thing as focusing on spending.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/obamacares-cost-could-top-6-trillion/
Cut spending and taxes. Make
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:10pm.
Cut spending and taxes. Make the balanced budget a law with teeth. Texas has a balanced budget law and we are doing good.
Almost good
Submitted by jon_torlin on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 4:02pm.
Well, it's got that $20 billion shortfall from the revenue (not the same as a $20 billion deficit) so budgets across the state at state agencies have been cutting their budgets by 10-25%. That's partly due to revenue not seeing high numbers because of unemployment and then people not spending that much money. I'll have to try to look into this at some point, but I don't think Texas has a real deficit. Usually the policy is that if the money is not there, the money won't be spent. I know some state universities are practicing the "preparing for a rainy day" where they have some money set aside as a contingency and then they have to be make adjustments along the way.
It's not the first time that belts have to be tightened, but sometimes it has to be a little tighter than others.
Texas did take a "bailout" unwillingly though. I can't remember for what, think it had something to do with hospitals or something and that might have been on a more local level. It caused a real sh!tstorm too if I remember right. Does anyone know the details?
-Jon
It's not an either or
Submitted by eaglewingz08 on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:23pm.
It's not an either or situation, either health care repeal or smaller government lower deficits. The health care law repeal will save two trillion dollars, resulting in smaller government and lower deficits.
It's funny that when the '
Submitted by Barack_must_go..... on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 3:48pm.
It's funny that when the ' self anointed one ' first came into office, he hit the ground running with everything from closing gitmo to ObamaCare along with at least ten other projects not being of any concern to the lame street media.
When questioned about such an ambitious agenda while unemployment hovers at 10%, and shouldn't that be your first and only priority, that same media immediately came to his rescue accusing the questioner of being a racist.
At that time parroting the White House talking points of how the president can juggle many things at once, so not focusing only on unemployment not a problem.
Well it still is after all this time.
Now fast forward two years and according to these same Obama sycophants the United States House of Representatives under John Boehner's leadership, with 435 members and hundreds of commitees cannot possibly get another thing accomplished if their first order of business is to right the wrong done to the American people known affectionately as " ObamaCare " or Barack's Waterloo.
That's just dumb and typical democrat / liberal business as usual.
Nancy Pelosi said, we've got to pass it, so we can read it to know what's in it.
Well we've read it, don't like it and we want our money and our lives back......thank you very much.
PS: If you get a chance, look for the replay of this Morning Joe exchange. Check out how pissed off Chuck Todd is even before they start to speak, aside from it being freezing out.
I believe this is because Major Garrett of National Review ( formerly Cheif White House corrospondent at FOX ) was there ( more & more frequently lately ) and Todd ( even more unprofessional than Chris Matthews ) is starting to see the writing on the wall concerning his position in the new organization.
I wonder what Rick Sanchez has been up to lately?
Barack_Must_Go.....
There's something about Chuck
Submitted by bkeyser on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 4:08pm.
There's something about Chuck Todd -and the image accompanying this thread really emphasizes it- that all I can think about is this. I know it's not fair, but this guy just screams "snide" to me.
'Relitigate' it, Hell
Submitted by Dave. on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 5:15pm.
Uproot it, gut it, fillet it, burn it, nuke it, then gather the ashes and launch them right into the sun.
And when Little Lord Obamaroy vetoes the bill, cut off the funding.
Every penny of it.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
They're related, ya moron!
Submitted by CobraMan on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 5:00pm.
"If you were still in your old job with John Boehner, do you want the headlines to be about investigations and relitigating health care or do you want them to be about spending and jobs and making government smaller?"
They're related, ya moron! You can't have less spending and less government, never mind more civilian jobs, until you "relitigate" (actually it's: DElitigate, since we're making up new words) the vast expansion of government that idiotic legislation like the "health care reform" bill imposes upon all of us.
You see, we need those public congressional investigations so that we, the people, can discover for ourselves just which government programs and policies are unnecessary (the vast majority of them, in my opinion, as they are redundant to existing STATE programs and policies) and then to identify cost effective ways of eliminating them altogether, the health care reform bill included.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
wonder if the Russian people
Submitted by donabernathy on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 5:21pm.
would of liked a do over in 1919..instead of have'n to wait for Ronald Reagan all them decades later.
roflmao
Health Care is in Todd's Constitution
Submitted by donabernathy on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 5:28pm.
see article 42
http://www.personal.psu.edu/mcw10/Download/SovietConstitution.htm
(1) Citizens ..... have the right to health protection.
roflmao
Shame
Submitted by grammajane on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 5:35pm.
What a shame for these young brain-washed hosts trying to spew the radical, extreme and bias agenda created by the hippie generation of America hater libs from the 60's. The leftists are gradually leaving DC as most American's are tired of ALL the damage they have done and are now in the process of electing folks who do care. Soon, these young hosts will probably have to check out a new career or at least listen to others besides the "good OLD boys and women" who constantly do what voters don't want.
I thought liberals LOVED
Submitted by Slyrr on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 10:21pm.
I thought liberals LOVED lawsuits...
Chuck Todd is a Doofus
Submitted by Chris Norman on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 10:30pm.
"...do you want the headlines to be about investigations and relitigating health care or do you want them to be about spending and jobs and making government smaller?" Uh, Chucky, you doofus, before "making government smaller" wouldn't it be logical for Republicans to stop implementation of ObamaHarm to prevent government from getting much, much bigger? Besides, doofus, you will be fighting toothe and nail against them "making government smaller" when they attempt it, so don't even try to make that sound like a reasonable policy now when it suits you.A real conflict-of-interest here
Submitted by ronber on Tue, 01/04/2011 - 9:55am.
Before coming to the world of political reporting and analysis, Todd earned practical political experience on initiative campaigns in Florida and various national campaigns based in Washington, D.C. While in college, Todd worked for the 1992 presidential campaign of Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and later started part time at The Hotline. He resides in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife, Kristian Denny Todd, daughter Margaret, and son Harrison. Kristian Denny Todd is a Democratic operative and communications professional.