Obama lies about his role in the Cornhusker Kickback

The president went on Fox News yesterday for a rare interview with a network his former communications director once described as not practicing news. Obama's interviewer was Bret Baier, who asked tenaciously about the special deals and procedural tricks that have been used to push ObamaCare through Congress. This is perhaps the first time Obama has ever been directly asked about the procedural details of the bill.

At one point, Baier pressed the president on the Cornhusker Kickback, the infamous deal that would have paid off Nebraska's Medicaid bills indefinitely and forever. The deal was struck to persuade Sen. Ben Nelson to vote for ObamaCare despite his hang-ups about abortion. Regarding the Cornhusker Kickback, Obama declared, "I have said that there's certain provisions, like this Nebraska one, that don't make sense and that needed to be out. And we have removed those."

This is simply untrue. The White House was almost certainly the architect of the Cornhusker Kickback. After Nelson announced his concerns over the abortion language in the bill, Obama began persistently meeting with the Nebraska senator at the White House. Nelson had a number of private one-on-one sessions with the president, with whom he was close friends. It was after these meetings that the Cornhusker Kickback was announced and Nelson switched from a no to yes vote. Of course, the idea could have been proposed by Harry Reid or another Senate Democrat, but it was certainly inserted in the bill with Obama's blessing. Obama's claim that he was above all this dealmaking is false. This is his Chicago politics.

The Cornhusker Kickback was never actually removed from the Senate bill, as the president claimed. The president toyed around with the idea of paying off all the states' Medicaid bills, but only after Nelson's deal became so politically toxic that even Nelson came out against it. The reconciliation sidecar does away with the Cornhusker Kickback, but only after the deal was conveniently used to bribe Nelson to help break the filibuster.

Baier's full interview with the president was riveting and contentious. Here's the video:

Obama's latest health care sob story a lie

In his final push for health care reform, Obama has been turning to Natoma Canfield, a leukemia-stricken woman in Ohio who watched her insurance premiums skyrocket. Here's video of the president's speech in Ohio yesterday. Skip to 4:45 to hear Natoma's predicament.

It's a genuinely sad tale, but it's also not the entire story. Fox News checked with Cleveland Clinic, the medical center treating Canfield. A spokesman said that Canfield wouldn't be left out on the streets because of her leukemia. In fact, she was likely eligible for a host of options, including Medicaid and charity.

Lyman Sornberger, executive director of patient financial services at the Cleveland Clinic, said "all indications" at the outset are that she will be considered for assistance.

"She may be eligible for state Medicaid ... and/or she will be eligible for charity (care) of some form or type. ... In my personal opinion, she will be eligible for something," he said, adding that Canfield should not be worried about losing her home.

"Cleveland Clinic will not put a lien on her home," he said.

Obama lied about Canfield losing her home, but he also lied when he made her out to be helpless. Ohio has fairly generous Medicaid requirements for low-income individuals. We can't be sure how much money Canfield makes or has made, but she likely qualifies for something. Lack of knowledge about Medicaid eligibility is a serious problem plaguing the health care system. According to the Independent Institute, of the 47 million people who allegedly don't have health insurance, around 10 million qualify for Medicaid assistance and don't know it. Medicaid was established for the express purpose of helping low-income American afford health care. Obama could have pointed this out to Canfield. Instead he chose to use her condition for his own political purpose to promote health care reform.

Blago continues his revenge against Rahm

It hasn't been an easy month for Rahm Emanuel. Obama's brass-knuckled chief of staff has been taking punches of his own, first from angry progressives and then from shower buddy Eric Massa. But if Massa's revenge has worn its course, another Emanuel associate, Rod Blagojevich, is only getting started. It's been reported that Blago is furious that he was punished for trying to sell Obama's Senate seat while Obama, Emanuel, and Valerie Jarrett got off scot-free. Emanuel is his first target.

Said Blagojevich [in an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News], "Yeah the deal on senate seat with me was, I was not selling a senate seat for financial gain, or money that's a lie. I wanted to make a political deal. The attorney general of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, her father is the Democratic house speaker, he was blocking a public works bill, he was blocking expanding health care, and he was pushing a tax increase.

"I wanted Rahm and sought Rahm out to be the middleman to make the deal happen. I would appoint her senator in exchange for the jobs bill, health care expansion, and written promise not to raise taxes on people. Rahm was prepared to do it and then everything changed when I was arrested 6:00 in the morning.

"In fact, the day before my arrest, I directed my chief of staff to work out the tactics, and that meant working with Rahm. I wanted Rahm, not Senator Durbin, who also offered to help because he's a lot tougher. And he's the kind of guy, if he sees a guy who if he sees a congressman in the locker room, whether clothed or not he's going to press you for what he thinks he wants to try to get done.

"And that story about him and the other congressman, is the reason why I wanted Rahm to make the deal on senate seat, because this is a guy who knows how to get it done," Blagojevich said.

It's well known that the White House favored Lisa Madigan for the seat over both Roland Burris and current contender Alexi Giannoulias. Blagojevich is certainly lying about not trying to sell Obama's Senate seat, but his accusations against Rahm ring true.

We already know that Rahm was part of a small council that burned the midnight oil getting Blago elected in 2002. We also know he's been wheeling and dealing with Blago for years, most notably when the governor secured a bill on bringing Ultimate Fighting to the state on behalf of Rahm's brother and Hollywood mega-agent Ari. Rahm is on the FBI tapes of phone conversations with Blago. Emanuel has been mixed up with Blago's Chicago crowd from the beginning and it seems impossible that he wasn't instrumental in carrying out the governor's plans. When the FBI finally releases the tapes, Emanuel could very well be implicated...and so could the president.