www.LC.org

Washington, DC – “Mr. President, tear down this wall,” said Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law. Staver’s reference draws from President Ronald Reagan’s famous speech to Mikhail Gorbachev, when asking the former leader of the Soviet Union to tear down the wall of Communism. Staver continued, “President Barack Obama and the Democratic leadership are trying to exclude the American people from important information regarding healthcare, like the former Soviet Union tried to control the media and shut out public participation. This is anything but transparency, which we were promised.”

President Obama made numerous campaign promises that he would make the legislative process transparent. The purposeful exclusion by President Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of Republicans, moderate Democrats, the media, and the American people from participation in the healthcare debate has resulted in a level of secrecy and deception that completely contradicts what the President promised to the people who put him in office. In fact, yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the final healthcare reform bill will be negotiated “behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats.”

At least eight times it was recorded on camera that Obama promised negotiations would be broadcast “on C-SPAN” which can be viewed at http://www.blip.tv/file/3052083/. President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton’s failed attempt at healthcare reform: “They made one really big mistake, and that is they took all their people and their experts into a room and then they … they closed the door,” Obama said. Obama also promised: “We will work on, uh, this process publicly. It will be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the Net.” He continued, “So that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituency and who is… who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies, or the insurance companies.”

C-SPAN has already expressed interest in televising the healthcare process. Brian Lamb publicly stated that his network “will commit the necessary resources” to broadcast “the critical stage of reconciliation between the chambers.” Yet, Obama and the Democratic leadership are reneging on these promises.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “Was Congressman Joe Wilson right? Is Obama lying to the American people? For the sake of the freedom on which America stands, Mr. President, tear down this wall!”

Liberty Counsel has promised to file suit against any version of healthcare that mandates individual coverage.

Receive our Liberty Alerts via RSS 

Follow Liberty Counsel on and