SCHIP, the program Hillary Clinton did not help to start.
The year of 2007, Hillary Clinton rammed to the public her being the one who initiated and created the SCHIP legislation.
As First Lady, Hillary helped create SCHIP, which provides health insurance for more than 6 million children: As First Lady, Hillary helped pass the State Children's Health Insurance Program. She helped negotiate the bill with Congress and later was the point person working to ensure that parents across the country knew about the program and signed up their children.
But the reality is that this legislation was not created by her, initiated by her nor does she have any legislation mark on it.
Another lie, perhaps.
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.
So if she had minimal input, why does she keep stating that she was behind this legislation when she was not? And as the Tuzla, Bosnia flap, did she not think that folks would look into this and ask questions?
But the Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children's health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill.
So, the Clinton Administration was supportive of this bill, but fought against it? That is healthcare for our youngest citizens in this country, children. Well, that is a thoughtful eyeful while reading this. Anyway.....
"The White House wasn't for it. We really roughed them up" in trying to get it approved over the Clinton administration's objections, Hatch said in an interview.
"I do like her," Hatch said of Hillary Clinton. "We all care about children. But does she deserve credit for SCHIP? No - Teddy does, but she doesn't."
Now, this is not to say that Clinton does not care about children or healthcare for all. But, when looking at the facts, embellishment is much on her side.
This again goes back to the heart of the matter. Why lie about something that reporters, bloggers, individuals, you tubers can easily look up and put you in a gotcha predicament? This makes one wonder, does the Clinton Campaign understand the functionality of the bloggers and you tube? And do her speech writers back peddle and check audio, video, print to make sure the facts are in place? Obviously, they do not.
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."
Facts are something that comes back to haunt you. Especially, when you are not stating the facts correctly. The Tuzla, Bosnia incident is just an outright lie on Clinton’s part. Stating misspeak is so far a stretch that everyone is laughing at that, especially when you see constant video of the actual incident and no sniper fire, sorry that is just a lie. But now, to embellish and attempt to make SCHIP a major healthcare caveat of your policy, and to state that you were a major player behind it, when in fact you were not, again that honesty light bulb is glowing brightly right now.
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.
Now did Clinton have passion for healthcare for children, I think she did and does, but her tendency to just say whatever, stretch the truth whenever, to outright telling a lie should make many take a pause about the character of her.
Much of all this stuff going on now with Bosnia is too reminiscent to the Clinton Administration. They never could answer a question with a yes or now, every word was parsed, truthiness ran rampant in that administration and they had a problem with telling the truth.
That is what is going on here. But whose fault is it? Hillary Clinton’s, of course. Remember, she said that Barack Obama was not vetted, well it surely seems like she was not either and the chicken has just come home to roost.
Just tell the truth Hillary, the American public will understand and respect you better if you just did that.
Update [2008-3-26 17:11:37 by icebergslim]:
Premise of this diary is that Clinton states she was one of the ones who created SCHIP, it is on her website, she did not. That legislation was produced and pushed by Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and more importantly Edward Kennedy (D-MA). Just like on Hillary Clinton's website about FMLA, which was created by Chris Dodd and she and the Bill Clinton have embraced this legislation as they pushed it through, when in FACT, it was already pushed through by the time they entered the Oval Office.
Update [2008-3-26 17:39:48 by icebergslim]:
The Obama Campaign response on Hillary Clinton's embellishments or lies. Whichever you prefer. Link