Underwhelming debate exposed Underwood has trouble with the truth

COMMENTARY: This is a first of several articles recapping the September 1 head-to-head virtual debate between Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and Republican challenger state Senator Jim Oberweis. Since the 2nd head-to-head was just completed, the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board interview, observations from there will be used as appropriate.

Tuesday’s first debate between Underwood and Oberweis was an underwhelming performance by both candidates. The debate, conducted virtually by the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce, featured two candidates trying to keep to talking points and both failed to give voters inspiration to support either of them.

My report card gave both candidates a “C” grade, and since Underwood is the incumbent, that gives her the debate victory. There will be additional debates, and much that was said can be used by both campaigns after they review the video and prep for the next debate.

Lack of Honesty — Underwood

Underwood was the most dishonest between her and Oberweis, by far. And any form of lying, including but not limited by “half-truth”, “embellishment”, “minimizing”, “deflection”, “omission”, “little white” in addition to the “bald face”, is just that, a lie.

Underwood stated this same lie three times in various forms during the debate and multiple times in this morning’s editorial board interview with the Chicago Sun-Times:

President Trump signed 3 of my bills into law

Paraphrase of same lie Underwood told three times
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If an average person/voter heard that, one thinks, 3 bills written/sponsored by Underwood were passed in both the House and Senate, and signed into law by President Trump.

McHenry County Blog believes in full context so here is the full context behind Underwood’s claim, and why what she said three times is a lie.

The three bills are, and how they, or components, became law:

• H.R. 5444 — Lower Insulin Costs Now Act, was introduced on Dec 17, 2019, and by mid-day, the annual Appropriations Bill H.R. 1865 was released for public view and included H.R. 5444 ver batim, clearly the product of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Leadership to pass the appropriations bills to fund the government. The act complements the late 2018 Trump Administration initiative to reclassify insulin as a “biologic” instead of a “drug” in order to bring generic competition faster to reduce prices. The legislation itself extended a date for the approval of generic insulin biologics. By itself, Underwood’s legislation does not lower insulin costs, but is important to achieve the goal. H.R. 1865 was approved in late December in both House and Senate and signed into law on December 20.
• H.R. 3525 — U.S. Border Medical Screening Standards Act, passed the House last September on a highly partisan vote (only two Republicans voted for the bill, while two Democrats voted against it). Only the provision of an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system being funded for $30 million was approved through appropriations bill H.R. 1158 and the 90-day implementation mandate from H.R. 3525 was removed. H.R. 1158 was approved by the House in late December and signed into law on December 20.
• H.R. 6282 — Commission on America’s Medical Security Act, sponsored by Dr. Raul Ruiz (D, CA-36) and cosponsored by Underwood and a Republican, never came for a separate vote, but was included in the CARES Act H.R. 748 approved by the Senate unanimously and the House in late March and signed into law on March 27, 2020.

Underwood’s claim the President signed three of her bills into law is thoroughly shown to be an embellishment and a half-truth, and her claim is still a lie she told 3 times during the debate. Yes, H.R. 1158, H.R. 1865 and H.R. 748 passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, but for Underwood to claim that overwhelming support was for her bills is an outright lie.

Other lies caught both during the debate and watching the video:

• Lowering costs of out of pocket healthcare expenses of the Affordable Care Act passed the House on a “bipartisan” basis. H.R. 1425 passed the House at the end of June of this year with only two Republicans supporting the legislation, and one Democrat opposing. Must be pointed out, this was passed during the House Democrats’ “proxy” voting rules change, so many of the Democrats who voted for the bill had their votes cast by someone else (Underwood cast Congressman Bobby Rush’s (D, IL-01) vote).
• State and Local Taxes (SALT) deductions, Underwood claimed she had the first bill filed to address the SALT deductions limitation from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Actually, it was the 6th bill filed in the 116th Congress on March 14, 2019. Underwood’s H.R. 1757 was the first bill to keep the SALT limits but raise it substantially, whereas the first five bills were to repeal it. In December, the House Democrat majority ended Underwood’s legislation, and went with a repeal H.R. 5377 which narrowly passed the House, thanks to 5 Republicans who supported the repeal in an example of REAL bipartisan legislation. As I’m writing this, Underwood just made this same claim again in the editorial board interview with the Chicago Sun-Times so she has not corrected this error.

Lack of Honesty — Oberweis

Compared with Underwood, Jim Oberweis was far more honest at Tuesday’s debate. But one questionable statement stood out when Oberweis claimed why he decided to run for Congress.

“When Lauren Underwood started voting like a radical socialist, I decided it was time to run for the 14th Congressional District.

“Her values are not our values.”

Jim Oberweis at debate, covered by Daily Herald
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That is not what he told media outlets back in February of 2019 when he first announced his congressional campaign. He told the Chicago Sun-Times he was running to make the 14th congressional district “red” again, and blamed Underwood’s 2018 victory on J.B. Pritzker’s spending to turn out Democrat votes (in spite Pritzker losing in the 14th district) in November 2018.

That is rewriting history, and a lie based on his own admissions to the news media back in early 2019.

Additionally, apart from Underwood’s vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker, the true “radical socialist” votes did not start until March of 2019, beginning with the For the People Act of 2019 (H.R. 1), which was the first bill cited on Congressman Dan Crenshaw’s (R, TX-02) Top 10 list.

Just tell the truth, Senator Oberweis, as the truth about Underwood by itself can unseat her, especially that she has real trouble telling it.

External link:

• Sun-Times 2/19/19 article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/2/19/18327792/oberweis-trying-again-for-congress-will-pour-own-money-into-underwood-challenge