Bush lies on Patients' Bill of Rights

Courtesy of the Center for American Progress via dailykos:

THEN:
"I signed into law some of the toughest patient-protection laws in the nation [and] I support a patient bill of rights for all patients, similar to those already enacted in Texas."

- George W. Bush, USA Today op-ed entitled "I Will Build On My Record," 8/17/00 (FYI - Bush didn't sign the law - he let it pass without his signature after the legislature forced him to accept it)


NOW:
"Before the Supreme Court, the Bush administration opposed the Texas law, instead joining two managed-care companies, Aetna Health Inc. and Cigna HealthCare of Texas Inc." Those two companies alone have given President Bush and the Republican Party more than $1.7 million since 2000.

- NY Times, 6/21/04; Center for Responsive Politics

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There's no place where Bush has been more dishonest than with this issue. He opposes the Texas Patients' Bill of Rights, but it is passed by a veto-proof majority in the Texas legislature, so Bush lets it pass into law without a signature. Yet in a debate with Gore, Bush blatantly lies claiming he signed it. (The media was too busy calling Gore a liar to write about Bush's REAL lies.)

Then, after Bush gets into office, he orders his Justice Department to fight the Texas law. Yesterday, Bush won. The Supreme Court has invalidated all state Patients' Bill of Right laws saying federal law supercedes it.