Thursday, September 10, 2009

You Lie! Thank you, Congressman Wilson

Besides breaking longstanding Congressional decorum, Congressman Joe Wilson is to be applauded for having the testicular fortitude to say what were we all thinking throughout the entirity of the president's speech last night. The video below is not presented so much to show you the spectacle, but because I think the "But how did you know!?" look on Pelosi's face is friggin' hillarious.In any case, Congressman Wilson has apologized for his remarks and has been roundly condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. But, not I. For while the networks and her Speakership will remain determined to focus on the act (shouting "you lie" at POTUS), I will focus instead on the assertion (that the President lied to the American people and to Congress about illegals being covered by his proposals).

The fact is that on two seperate occassions Congressional democrats had the opportunity to close the loophole in the bill that would allow illgals access to the coverage. While it is true that no explicit language in the proposals would grant taxpayer funded healthcare to illegal aliens, it is a fact that they would be given treatment under the program, that it would be illegal under the current law to deny treatment, and that the president knows all of this to be true. He lied to us anyway. If it were not true, why would congressional Democrats now be telling us they will move quickly to close the loophole exposed to us last night on live television by Congressman Joe Wilson?
Among three House committees to pass bills for health reform, only one expressly bans federal funding for proving health coverage to illegal immigrants.

"The Congressional Research Service has indicated that indeed the bills that are before Congress would include illegal aliens," Wilson said. "And I think this is wrong."

Indeed, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service study found that the House health care bill does not restrict illegal immigrants from receiving health care coverage.

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner amplified the complaint that without proof of citizenship, illegal immigrants could be insured.

"There were two opportunities for House Democrats to make clear that illegal immigrants wouldn't be covered by putting in requirements to show citizenships," he said. "Both of those amendments were, in fact, rejected."

In the Senate, Democrats in the so called "Gang of Six," a group of bipartisan senators on the Senate Finance Committee which is the last panel yet to release its bill, began moving quickly to close the loophole that Wilson helped bring greater attention to.
So which is it? Did Congressman Wilson unjustly call the president a liar or was the president actually lying? Or is it the third possibility, and the most probable one, that the president hasn't the slightest clue as to what is in these bills and just wants something passed through the Congress so he can sign it and not look like a big fat political loser.

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