Rick Perry accused President Obama of fraud today, at the same time that he is refusing to expand Medicaid and denying 1 million Texans healthcare.
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Transcript:
ZELENY: So, the president has said he’s sorry for misleading some of those Americans that he thought they could keep their insurance plans. Do you think that’s enough?
PERRY: I don’t think it’s even close to enough. He needs to to stand up in front of the American people and say, you know, what. I perpetrated a fraud on you.
Rick Perry is the ultimate going nowhere 2016 candidate, but it takes a lot of ego to accuse the president of fraud while he sits back an denies healthcare to 1 million Texans by refusing to expand Medicaid.
While in Dallas, President Obama called out Perry for refusing to expand Medicaid, “Here in just the Dallas area, 133,000 people who don’t currently have health insurance would immediately get health insurance without even having to go through the website if the state of Texas decided to do it. There’s over $500 million just for this county that would come in to help families get health insurance — has nothing to do with the website — if the state of Texas made this decision. And your neighboring states have made that decision because they look at it and they say, this is a no-brainer, why would not — why would we not want to take advantage of this…There’s no reason why this state can’t do the same. And I mentioned that in the Dallas area it’s 133,000 people who stand to benefit. Across this state, you’ve got a million people — because this is a big state — a million people, citizens, who don’t have health insurance that could get health insurance right away if the state of Texas decided to take advantage of it.”
The real fraud is that Republican governors are denying millions of poor and working class Americans access to healthcare because they refuse to expand Medicaid. President Obama should be going into each of these red states and telling people that it is their governor who is denying millions of them access to healthcare. Rick Perry is denying the Medicaid expansion because he is still harboring delusions that he could be president one day.
In the Republican Party, it is good politics for a governor with his eyes on the presidential nomination to deny access to healthcare to as many people as possible. Gov. Perry is committing a moral crime by denying a million people access to healthcare, yet he has the nerve to accuse the president of fraud.
The only dishonest actor here is Rick Perry, and one million Texans are paying for his Obamacare lies.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
