Dick Armey: Obama Agenda ‘Very Tyrannical’; Republicans Who Support Him Should Beware

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:

We asked former House majority leader Dick Armey, whose FreedomWorks organization has helped stir up some of the more vocal “tea party” protests of the past few months, whether some of the rhetoric has gotten out of hand.

Specifically, did House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, cross a line when he called the health care bill “the greatest threat to freedom that I've seen in the 19 years I've been in Washington”?

No way, Armey told us on ABCNews.com's “Top Line” today: “I was there before John Boehner. It's the greatest threat to individual liberty I've seen in my time,” said Armey, R-Texas.

“If you find your personal liberty precious, if you understand the best decisions in commerce and production and distribution and product is decisions made in the private sector, then you find it very tyrannical to have a government dictate to you: 'You must buy this product, as I specify, this product, at the price I set for this product. If you don't do so you will be subject to even criminal sanctions and jail sentences, severe fines and penalties,'” he said.

“The Pointer Sisters had a great point about the song 'Mr. Big Shot, Who Do You Think You Are?' I mean, where the government gets off telling me what I must buy, where I must buy it, what its dimensions or specifications must be, and what price to pay — who do they think they are?”

Asked if there's room in the party for moderate Republicans — such as Senate candidates Charlie Crist, R-Fla., Carly Fiorina, R-Calif., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., all of whom are mistrusted by conservatives — Armey said:

“People who seek high office, who think the stimulus package was a good thing, endorse such trespasses against past privacy rights as card-check and so forth, are people that we think will be counterproductive to our prosperity to our safety and security and rights as citizens — irrespective of party.”

“Top Line” — No Reward for Obama’s “Legislative Panic”: CEO of FreedomWorks says Congress should Start Over on Healthcare Reform.

ABC News’ Kim Berryman reports: President Obama’s hopes for a health care bill before the August recess are long gone and with the help of skeptics and concerned constituents, the administration’s sprint towards a bill this fall is now slowing to an uphill jog. This afternoon Matt Kibbe, president and CEO of FreedomWorks, a group “leading the fight for lower taxes, less government, and more freedom” said that hope for passing reform in 2009, is lost.

The White House used “an all or nothing strategy and I think they’re going to step out of this with nothing…I think enough Americans have raised opposition that the moderate democrats and the moderate republicans that they need to pass this reform are going to back away from this process and we’re going to start over and hopefully we do it right the second time” Kibbe predicted on ABC News’ “Top Line.”

As the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats push their political chips towards the center of the table on health care reform, it seems hard to imagine anyone settling for a do-over at this point in the game.

However, Kibbe insists that “passing a big reboot of the health care system is not something that the American public is eager to see right now.”

Instead of passing overall reform in a process of what he calls “legislative panic,” Kibbe suggests an incremental approach with bipartisan support and applauded the health insurance reforms put forth by Senator Jim Demint of South Carolina.

In the months of lobbying, committee meetings and White House phone calls, “the one group that [President Obama] cut out of the conversation was the public. They have an interest in this debate and they watched how the President passed the stimulus package and … the bank bailout last fall. They’re tired of these secretive, rushed legislative efforts,” Kibbe said.

The Obama administration has often voiced its desire to be more open with the public than the administrations that preceded it. Yet, with health care, the topic of transparency is a sore one. Just this summer, the Los AngelesTimes reported the White house’s reluctance to disclose a list of visitors coming by the famous mansion to discuss reform.

Obama himself is answering questions at town hall meetings in rapid succession this week. These meetings follow months of media coverage allowing him to explain the specific changes he had in mind. In ABC’s own Prescription for America special this June the president tried to make his plans clear to the American people. Despite these attempts, misunderstandings and disagreements among Americans have distracted the White House and congressional leaders from their selling points.

Just this week, Sen. ChuckGrassley, R-Iowa,a proponent of a bipartisan bill, addressed untruths about death panelsduring a town hall meeting.Meanwhile, the White House has launched a Reality Check website among other tools to address the more common concerns people have about health care.

“If you get an e-mail from somebody that says, for example, ‘Obamacare is creating a death panel,’ forward us the e-mail and we will answer the question that’s raised” President Obama said in a town hall meeting on Tuesday.

The hurdle health care will have to clear is the dread that many Americans like Kibbe associate with “the idea of government forcing anybody to buy insurance, particularly when they mandate what insurance that is.”

To see more of what Matt Kibbe told Top Line, click HERE.

Lizzie O’Leary, co-author of today’s eye-opening report from Bloomberg News,also stopped by the studio today to discuss her findings. The exclusive report by O’Leary and Jonathan D. Salant show that there are no fewer than six health care lobbyists for every member of the House and Senate.

To hear more about O’Leary’s report click HERE.

GOP Rep.: Pelosi Should Lose Security Clearances

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: One of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leading Republican critics is calling on his colleagues to suspend the speaker’s security clearances, until or unless her disagreement with the CIA is resolved.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said on ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today that Pelosi, D-Calif., “can’t be trusted with intelligence secrets until this matter is cleared up.”

“The speaker’s intelligence security credentials are in question. I think this Congress needs to consider whether we would suspend that and ask her whether she will step down or step aside until such time as this matter is cleared up,” said King, who said he agreed with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that Democrats should replace Pelosi as speaker.

“The briefings that take place on the fourth floor of the Capitol building will not be at the level of confidence and the ability of the members to keep that secure,” he added. “And certainly I think at this point the speaker can’t be trusted with intelligence secrets until this matter is cleared up.”

Pelosi last week accused intelligence officials of “misleading the Congress of the United States” by not fully briefing her about waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. CIA Director Leon Panetta maintains that she was fully and accurately briefed.

King’s idea for a House floor vote on security clearances is not being embraced by House GOP leadership, according to Capitol Hill sources.

But Republican leaders are considering other ways to force all House members to take a stand on the controversy surrounding Pelosi before the Memorial Day break.

One concept being discussed would involve a vote on whether the House intelligence committee should investigate Pelosi’s allegations. Such a vote would almost certainly fail along party lines, but would force House Democrats into a politically awkward vote.

“There are a number of different ideas on the table,” King said. “We do go home for this Memorial [Day] break so there is a concern that this will dissipate over time. If it does then it’ll be the country that pays the price.”

Though Democrats are lining up behind the speaker, King predicted that splits will begin to appear inside the party.

“I think they have to decide whether national security means more to them then holding their party together,” he said. “At some point Democrats are going to have to decide whether — it probably will be a political decision on their part — whether their seats become vulnerable. If they think they’re going to lose their seats then they’re going to join Republicans in this growing movement to stand up for national security and set aside partisanship.”

“I expect to see that fairly soon and they’re all kinds of factions within the Democratic caucus that are pulling against each other right now,” King added. “But they are not standing on the steps of the US Capitol in solidarity with Nancy Pelosi today, and I don’t expect that’s going to happen because they don’t have any confidence that what she said was the truth.”

Watch the interview with Rep. Steve King HERE.

Also today, we spoke with Ana Marie Cox, of Air America, about Pelosi, Michael Steele’s efforts to turn around the Republican Party, and tomorrow’s dueling speeches pitting President Obama against former Vice President Dick Cheney.

(Guess which speech she’ll be attending.)

Watch our interview with Ana Marie Cox HERE.

Rep. Darrell Issa: Obama Should Channel Reagan Abroad

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: With President Obama accepting a slice of the blame for the world financial crisis on behalf of his countrymen, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told us today that the president should model himself on former President Reagan on the world stage.

“I think if President Obama were to act more like a Ronald Reagan, a champion of greatness of our country and of free enterprise and of what we can do, I think he would get more support and be very popular,” Issa told us on “Top Line” today. “Right now, he’s tending to say the previous administration was bad and I’m less bad, and that’s not necessarily what the Germans, the French or the British really want to hear.”

Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, took issue with Obama’s putting the blame for the crisis on the lack of regulation under the Bush administration, “rather than taking what is probably a more legitimate . . . blame . . . which is that we created these [financial] products, we exported these products.”

“I would’ve wished he would have said that because it wasn’t a secret or an absence of regulation; it was something America was, for better or worse, proud of until we realized the downside of it,” Issa said.

He also hinted at the dissension within the GOP ranks over the party’s alternative budget proposal, which was finally introduced by House leaders today, after they offered only the shell of a budget last week.

“I don’t think that this budget proposal that my own party is putting out is ambitious enough on the cutting back and spending and the reducing of the deficit,” Issa said. “So I would like to both on the tax side and on the spending side see a more ambitious package. But when you look at this package compared to the Democratic proposal, the Democratic proposal spends more, taxes more and pushes more onto future debt, and that’s really the challenge, is doubling the national debt in the next five years.”

Also today, we chatted with Ana Marie Cox of The Daily Beast and “Air America,” getting her take on the Ted Stevens news and how she sometimes wishes President Obama could stand in for her husband during family disputes.

White House: Burris Should Ponder His Future This Weekend

ABC News’ David Chalian Reports: A few hours after Gov. Pat Quinn, D-Ill., publicly called on Sen. Roland Burris to resign his seat, the White House weighed in a bit further on Sen. Burris’ fate.

“It might be important for Sen. Burris to take some time this weekend to either correct what has been said and, certainly, think of what lays in his future,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He went on to challenge Burris to use the upcoming weekend to “take a look at what has been said and for him to come up with an explanation that satisfies” all of the questions swirling around his evolving story about contacts with people in former Gov. Blagojevich’s sphere as he was seeking the US Senate seat from Illinois.

Earlier this week, Mr. Gibbs indicated that he had not talked to President Obama specifically about the controversy surrounding Sen. Burris and on Friday was still unable to provide the president’s reaction to what has taken place in his home state.

From the White House podium at his press briefing on Friday, Gibbs repeated his statement that President Obama believes the people of Illinois deserve to have this matter thoroughly investigated.