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Noem Indicts Washington on Hearsay, Still Wants DC Cash

Kristi Noem speaks! That explains the smell....

South Dakota's lone Congresswoman spoke to someone other than Tea Partiers Monday, making an appearance at the Sioux Falls Rotary Club. Her newest stump lines declaring government is evil have to do with unsubstantiated hearsay that federal inspectors fined a gravel pit $17K for one bad rivet and another unnamed business $32K for a frayed electrical cord.

Noem, with her large paid staff to produce documents and research on matters of such importance, provides no documents or research to back up such remarkable claims, just her assurance that every word from her lips is true. I welcome any reader to substantiate Noem's claims on these two fines: Who got the fines? When? What regulations were violated?

Noem continues to groan about the tyranny of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. She insists that we repeal the whole thing... except for the part that gives South Dakota a whole bunch of money:

She backs a new rule called the frontier states provision that would raise Medicare reimbursement rates for five states, including South Dakota. The provision would bring South Dakota hospitals more than $20 million a year, starting in 2013, by correcting a system that now pays hospitals and doctors less in rural states. President Obama has recommended deleting the provision as a way to save money.

"We're going to fight to keep it," Noem told the audience.

The provision is part of the Affordable Care Act, the health reform bill that Obama pushed and Congress passed in March 2010 before Noem was in office. Noem opposes the reform bill even though it includes the frontier states provision.

"That doesn't justify keeping the monstrosity in place. ... I would repeal Obamacare," she said in an interview afterward. Congress could overturn the larger bill and still preserve the Medicare correction, she said [Jon Walker, "Noem: D.C. Much Worse Than She Realized," that Sioux Falls paper, 2011.10.18].

Rep. Noem also laments that the "political climate" (Walker's words) is jeopardizing federal funding for the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System. She complains about the White House proposing far less funding for the project than it has received in past years. She ignores, of course, her role in promoting exactly the government-bashing, budget-hacking political climate that has contributed to cuts in Lewis and Clark.

At some point, Kristi, you must have to step outside and laugh at your own complete lack of coherent principles. You can't just say things; at some point, you have to mean things. And your constant mish-mash of irreconcilable and unjustifiable talking points render the sum of your statements meaningless.

Related: Michael Woodring suggests Senator John Thune is in a similar boat with his effort to protect government handouts to agribusiness.

7 Comments

  1. Charlie Johnson 2011.10.19

    KN works with two open hands. One hand continues to open hand slap the federal government while the other is in an open hand "plea" asking for more help for Lewis and Clark, Medicare reimbursement, crop ins., and the list goes. The eye candy politician likes to work her stuff.

  2. mike 2011.10.19

    Didn't the argus ask her for the facts?

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.10.19

    Why no, Mike, not in the article linked above. Funny, that. After supper, I'm going to see what evidence might be available online. Where should we start looking, OSHA?

  4. Dave 2011.10.19

    Kristi can spin a yarn just like Michelle Bachmann. How long before Kristi claims the HPV vaccine causes "mental retardation" because a woman at one of her rare "meetings" told Kristi it was so?

  5. Benxamin 2011.10.20

    Did you find which companies were fined?

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.10.20

    Sorry, Ben! That's a weekend research project! Help from the commentariat is welcome!

Comments are closed.