At one point in his interview yesterday with Rep. Anthony Weiner, Bill O'Reilly declared "I know I'm not a smart man". It turns out to be his only statement with any factual basis.
An exasperated Weiner eventually declares:
Weiner: I've got a very big burden here debunking every one of the mistakes that you're making.
Video below.
O'Reilly's main contention throughout the interview was the rightwing talking point de jour: that anyone refusing to buy in to health care would be fined by the IRS. This talking point, as is usually the case with such things, has managed to spread very rapidly, with the help of megaphones like O'Reilly.
Thank goodness for people like Anthony Weiner who are willing to debunk it in plain terms.
O'Reilly: If someone is defiant, and says "I'm not gonna participate in this, I'm not gonna give you a nickel, I'm not gonna give you information on my health status", the IRS then comes in and deals with that person.
Weiner: That's not true.
But my favorite moment has to be the following:
Weiner: We are not...Bill, watch this [he points to his lips]...Bill, we are not criminalizing people who fail to comply.
Weiner ends the interview thusly:
Weiner: Why is it such a difficult concept? You've gotta stop making stuff up about the bill. You've gotta stop.
Here's the truncated version of the video from Talking Points Memo, which includes all the highlights mentioned above:
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ADDED:
A few commenters are asking, "Well, just what is the enforcement mechanism for the insurance mandate?". A fair question, and the always excellent Ezra Klein explains the ins and outs of the mandate in a column in today's Washington Post:
And what happens if you don't buy insurance and you don't pay the penalty? Well, not much. The law specifically says that no criminal action or liens can be imposed on people who don't pay the fine. If this actually leads to a world in which large numbers of people don't buy insurance and tell the IRS to stuff it, you could see that change. But for now, the penalties are low and the enforcement is non-existent.
So, yeah, O'Reilly's talking out of his buttocks.