Obama administration official Linda Douglass on Sunday dismissed claims that the White House has tried to compile an "enemies list" and censor debate on healthcare reform legislation.
Last week, the White House made a blog post accusing opponents of spreading "disinformation" on healthcare and encouraged supporters to submit "fishy" information floating around the internet.
"We don't have a list we're not keeping any of the sources of information those are all crazy charges," said Douglass, who is Communications Director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Douglass appeared on CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) sent the White House a letter at the end of last week expressing concern that the Obama administration may be collecting personal information belonging to their vocal opponents.
Douglass also responded to criticism that the White House has tried to stifle debate. She said people were entitled to their opinion but "there is a lot of misinformation and as I said in the video there is a lot of 'disinformation,' that's information that's meant to mislead you."
"There is a lot of effort to scare people," the former ABC newswoman added.
Additionally, Douglass refuted the YouTube clip that sparked the controversy. The video montage featured Obama speaking favorably about a single-payer healthcare system during his time as a senator.
"He didn't have a different position when he was a senator," she said, explaining he was speaking hypothetically at the time.
A member of the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board indicated that an economic recovery is just around the corner.
Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama, said "we may have hit stability, we may be in the beginning of an upturn" on Saturday. Tyson cited the latest jobs report in making her remarks.
Tyson also said that more stimulus funds would be injected into the economy in the coming months.
Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman added that the jobs report showed "It's quite possible, though not certain, that retrospectively, we'll say that the recession ended in July or August, maybe September," said in a separate interview with Bloomberg News.
The U.S. Labor Department reported last week that job losses amounted to 247,000 in July, less than the 320,000 jobs that economists expected to disappear.
In June, 443,000 Americans joined the ranks of the unemployed. The unemployment rate fell to 9.4 in July from 9.5 percent in June, the first time the figure declined in 15 months.
As his campaign heads to his native Bath County, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds (D) tied his opponent Bob McDonnell (R) to former President George W. Bush.
Deeds' attack demonstrates the extent to which his state's governor's race has been nationalized. President Obama appeared with Deeds at a campaign rally last week and McDonnell delivered the Republican weekly address this weekend.
Heading to Bath County...@BobMcDonnell thinks Bush economic policies helped here
McDonnell also played an early role in bringing national issues into the campaign, pressuring Deeds to say if he supports Democratic card-check, healthcare reform, and climate change legislation.
The Alaska state legislature will take up the last remnant of Sarah Palin's gubernatorial term on Monday; a measure overriding her veto of federal stimulus dollars directed toward the state.
Alaska Rep. Mike Hawker (R) told the Anchorage Daily News that he believes enough lawmakers will vote to strip the veto blocking stimulus money intended for energy cost relief. Seventy-five percent of legislators need to vote for the override to secure its passage.
Members of the legislature will vote in a special session Monday.
When she originally vetoed the funds, Palin argued that accepting the money would allow the federal government to compel Alaskan localities to adopt building codes.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich lent credence Sarah Palin's claim that the healthcare reform legislation will create "death panels" to judge end-of-life issues.
"Communal standards, historically, have been a very dangerous proposition," he said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday morning.
On Saturday morning, Palin called President Obama's healthcare proposal "downright evil" because it would create a "death panel" that would decide if individuals are worthy of treatment based on their "level of productivity in society."
In defense of Palin's remarks, Gingrich cited an article written by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Stadff Rahm Emanuel and a healthcare policy adviser, that suggested the possibility of population control.
"You're asking us to trust the government, not the Obama administration, the government," to provide healthcare Gingrich added.
The show's other guest, former DNC Chairman and Vermont Governor Howard Dean, dismissed Palin's comments, saying "about euthanasia, they're just totally erroneous. She just made that up."
Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said his chamber should give the bipartisan Wyden-Bennett bill a "LookSe." That health reform proposal was thought to be off the table in the Senate.
Republicans know need for healthCareReform That's why there are at least 4 Republican bills There is one bipartisan_Wyden-Bennett GiveLookSe
The Wyden-Bennett proposal calls for universal healthcare coverage with private insurance companies acting as the primary insurance providers.
Grassley's comments may raise some eyebrows since he has been the lead Republican negotiating the existing legislation in the Senate Finance Committee.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Sunday that he is "open" to a final healthcare bill that does not include a public health insurance option.
"I support a public option but yes, I am open," to its absence he said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Durbin stressed that keeping the three Republican senators, Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), still negotiating with Finance Committee Democrats is key to passing a successful bill.
"We want to keep them negotiation we are determined to get a bill to the floor, it doesn't have to be a
perfect bill," he added. "I don't want this process filibustered to failure."
Durbin expressed that getting a bipartisan bill to the floor after recess was his top priority and that the conference committee could rectify differences between the House and Senate versions, including a public option.
Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) set a September 15 deadline to bring a bipartisan healthcare reform bill to a vote in his influential committee.Some Democrats have said they would force a party-line vote if the deadline is not met.
The trend of controversial town halls contiuned on Friday when Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) questioned the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate and referred to a White House "enemies list" at a meeting in Tulsa.
"This is a scary time in Washington," he said. "It's a very frightening time. I see Barack Obama is creating an enemies list of people who oppose this miserable health care plan. I think that's frightening. That's from a guy that can't even show a long-form birth certificate. I think we all ought to be prepared to fight that."
One audience member at the Tulsa Republican Club didn't think that was enough, berating Sullivan for not doing enough to uncover Obama's citizenship, the Tulsa World reported.
The man was shouted down by other audience members after about one minute.
Several Republicans have accused the White House of forming a health reform "enemies list" after it called for supporters to turn in "fishy" information about the health bill.
The White House has denied such charges, saying that press officials only want to respond to anti-health reform rhetoric.
Below are web videos of President Barack Obama and the Republican weekly address. This week, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell spoke on behalf of the Republicans, highlighting his rising star in the party.
President Obama used his address to hit back at critics of healthcare reform legislation and re-take ownership of the debate. McDonnell said Obama's proposals on climate change, union card-check, and heat insurance reform will only lead to a plunge in unemployment.
New York Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel is open to criticism at his healthcare town hall meetings, but he would prefer if he heard civil arguments from constituents in his district.
"What I care about is the attempt to shout people down and to disrupt the meetings," Engel said on Fox News Saturday morning.
"I think you do have people who are going district-to-district who attempt to just shout people down and make it impossible to have a meeting," he added.
Democrats harshly criticized hostile town hall audiences this week, saying that Republicans and special interest groups incited "rabid right wing extremists" to disruopt town hall meetings with raucous protests. Some town halls have even turned violent.
Engel, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said "I just wished that calmer heads would prevail."
"There are legitimate concerns being voiced, there are also people like myself who who believe we need a healthcare reform and we need it soon," he added.
The Energy and Commerce Committee passed their version of the health insurance reform bill on July 31, just before the House broke for recess.
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