Ex-Clinton aide storms off Fox News set during Medicare debate
Click here to view this media Simon Rosenberg, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton, decided Thursday that he wasn’t going to be pushed around by conservative radio host Ben Ferguson during a discussion about Medicare on Fox News. Fox News’ Shannon Bream had invited Rosenberg to respond to video published by ABC News that showed Clinton telling Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) that he hoped Democrats wouldn’t use a Democratic congressional win in New York as “an excuse to do nothing” on reforming Medicare. “Does that hurt the current administration’s efforts and what Democrats in the White House are trying to do, with President Clinton suggesting maybe they do stop the fear mongering and get to work?” Bream asked. “I don’t think that anything that’s happened in the last few months is fear mongering,” Rosenberg replied. “Dumping a woman off a cliff isn’t fear mongering,” Ferguson interrupted, referring to an ad by The Agenda Project that shows a Paul Ryan lookalike pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff. Rosenberg calmly quoted Clinton as saying that under the Ryan plan, “medical costs will continue to go up and older people will use less, get sicker and die quicker or they will be poorer because they will have to spend more money on health care.” “That’s fear mongering,” Ferguson interrupted again. “Ben, shut up. It’s unbelievable how much you talk,” a frustrated Rosenberg said. “It’s not fear mongering. It is a factual, correct interpretation of the Ryan plan. The Ryan plan is bad public policy. It would have killed people prematurely. That’s fact.” After Ferguson interrupted yet again, Bream asked that Rosenberg be allowed to finish his answer. “Why should I come on this show if I can’t talk?” Rosenberg asked. “You can pout and that’s what you guys do well at,” Ferguson charged. With that, Rosenberg took off his microphone and walked off the set.
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Ex-Clinton aide storms off Fox News set during Medicare debate
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on May 26, 2011. Filed under