U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is taking heat for touting his opposition to health care reform legislation to a group of donors at a Miami fundraiser last week.
He is also facing criticism for once again defending the debunked urban legend that a provision in a health care reform bill currently in the U.S. House would give the government authority to euthanize the elderly.
Last month, a fundraising letter Grassley sent to supporters found its way to the blog of Washington Post writer Ezra Klein. In it, Grassley made it clear to potential donors that he is strongly opposed to health care reform legislation, despite public statements where he promises to work for a bipartisan bill.
Over the weekend, the liberal blog ThinkProgress.org reported from a fundraising event for Grassley in Miami that once again calls into question the senator’s commitment to crafting health care reform legislation.
As we previously reported, ThinkProgress attended a closed-door health care town hall forum in Hialeah, Fla., this past Tuesday, where Sens. Mel Martinez (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) discussed their opposition to Obama’s health reform plan. After the event, the three senators took a trip across town to the ritzy Biltmore hotel in Miami where they attended a fundraising reception sponsored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
ThinkProgress attended the closed-door reception. Upon arriving at the venue, we were surprised to see a conference room that was marked as a fundraising reception room for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Grassley was not listed on the official invitation. Minutes later, Grassley arrived, where he joined his fellow colleagues McConnell and McCain. In his remarks, Grassley told the wealthy Republican activists that he was committed to fighting Obama’s health care plan.
Tom Fiegen, a Cedar Rapids bankruptcy attorney and one of two Democrats hoping to challenge Grassley in 2010, condemned the “secret fundraiser” and called on the senator to come clean on his position on health care reform.
“Will the real Chuck Grassley stand up?” Fiegen said, later adding: “What good are Mr. Grassley’s town meetings in Iowa when he’s telling Iowans one thing and telling something else to the big-money contributors from out of state?”
Tuesday morning Grassley was a guest on C-SPAN. He was asked about the infamous “pull the plug on grandma” line he delivered several times during town hall forums around the state. Grassley said if you “connect several dots” and read between the lines that it is fair to conclude that “the government is going to be in the middle of end of life issues just like they are in England.”
On the issue of “death panels,” Grassley has both defended and walked back his original claims in recent weeks. When he began being criticized for the statements, Grassley at first defended them, using an argument similar to what he used on C-SPAN, that end-of-life counseling should be feared due to the likelihood that health care will be rationed.
By mid-August, a Grassley spokesman told the Washington Post that despite statements to the contrary, the senator “does not think the House provision would in fact give the government such authority in deciding when and how people die.”
By the end of August, Grassley was both disavowing the rumor and continuing to spread it at a town hall forum in Pocahontas.
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