Made-up Quotes

To start, the e-mail’s anonymous author offers no evidence to substantiate the disparaging remarks about veterans that he or she attributes to President Obama. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor told us that "these quotes are fabricated."

Our own research backs that up. We searched news databases and turned up no news organization that has ever quoted Obama this way. We conclude that these quotes are simply made-up, and perhaps intended as satire.

Update, Sept. 25: Long after we posted this article, we discovered that the quotes were indeed intended as satire. They are the product of conservative humorist John Semmens, who posted them originally March 21, 2009. They appeared in Semmens’ column, "Semi-News — A Satirical Look at Recent News, " at the online publication The Arizona Conservative.

We might have figured that out sooner had we recalled that Semmens was the source of an earlier fake Obama quote that was widely circulated during the 2008 campaign. That time, Semmens poked fun at Obama’s reluctance to wear an American flag pin on his lapel, and spun a tale in which Obama supposedly said the "war-like message" of the National Anthem should be replaced with something like "I Want to Teach the World to Sing." That was the subject of an earlier Ask FactCheck article posted April 22, 2008. Then as now, the bogus quotes became part of a chain e-mail that many passed off as true.

Garbled Budget Proposal

Furthermore, the author incorrectly describes a budget proposal that the White House discarded after veterans groups protested loudly. The message describes the idea as a "decision to let the military pay for their war injuries" and to "require veterans [to] carry private health insurance." That gives a false picture of what was actually under discussion.

As reported by the Washington Post and others including Fox News, the Obama administration met with several veterans groups on March 16 and floated the idea of saving taxpayers $540 million by billing veterans’ private insurance companies for treatment of conditions connected to their military service, including war injuries. The Department of Veterans Affairs currently bills these insurance companies for treatment of non-service-related conditions.

But as administration officials made clear at the time, there was no proposal to force veterans to pay for treatment for their own injuries, or to make them buy private insurance if they did not already have it. In fact, administration officials told FactCheck.org at the time that their proposal would have no financial impact on veterans at all.

"The idea … would result in no additional out-of-pocket costs to veterans even when their private insurance plans require deductibles before benefits are paid, " one official told us in an exchange of e-mails.

Nevertheless, veterans organizations protested. An American Legion news release carried the headline: "The American Legion Strongly Opposed to President’s Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment." It complained that the idea could under some circumstances result in added costs to veterans despite administration officials’ assurances. For example, the Legion said, a veteran’s treatment might cost enough to reach maximum insurance coverage limits, leaving the rest of the veteran’s family without health care benefits.

Two days after its meeting with veterans groups, the White House released a formal announcement saying that "the President has instructed that [the idea's] consideration be dropped."

–Justin Bank and Brooks Jackson

Sources
Rucker, Phillip. "Obama’s Turnabout on Vets Highlights Budget Nuances." Washington Post, 21 March 2009.


"Veterans Groups Blast Obama Plan for Private Insurance to Pay for Service-Related Health Care." Foxnews.com, 17 March 2009.

Posted by Justin Bank and Brooks Jackson on Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Filed under Ask FactCheck · Tagged with chain e-mail, health care, military, President Obama, veterans