Bo the dog cited in health care debate

By Louis Jacobson
Published on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 6:00 p.m.

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"It took Obama six months to pick out a family dog," but he's "cramming health care reform down the country's throat in a fraction of that time."

Haley Barbour, Thursday, August 13th, 2009.

Ruling: Mostly False | Details

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Bo, the White House dog, accompanied the Obamas on their summer vacation.

Republicans have been complaining for weeks that President Barack Obama is trying to rush health care reform through Congress. To make their point, they have now gone to the dogs.

In an Aug. 13 op-ed in the Washington Examiner , Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour invoked Bo, the White House dog, to illustrate how quickly Obama has tried to pass the 1,000-page House bill. Barbour, who chairs the Republican Governors Association and has been mentioned as a possible 2012 presidential contender, wrote, "It took Obama six months to pick out a family dog. Cramming health care reform down the country's throat in a fraction of that time scares people who have been told, accurately, the various bills contain a billion-dollar combination of tax increases and Medicare spending cuts."

To judge whether Obama tried to pass the bill "in a fraction" of the time it took him to choose the Portuguese water dog requires examining the timeline for both the health care bill and the selection of Bo. And that's not as easy it might sound.

We did the math and found the truth depends on when you start the clock ticking.