Who lied? Joe Wilson or Obama?
Keith Olbermann presents a convincing case that Joe Wilson was just flat-out wrong when he accused the President of lying in his address to Congress. Wrong in his incivility towards the Commander in Chief, but also wrong in his facts. I found that hard to believe. Let’s find out.
Olbermann cites in this video (go to 3:30 in video) on his show Countdown that H.R. 3200 Section 246 explicitly prevents illegal aliens from receiving health care. (You can see the bill and this section at the bottom of the post)
Sec. 246. No Federal Payment for Undocumented Aliens.
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
After viewing this, I thought, “Wow, Olbermann’s right. It says no payment for undocumented aliens.” So I watched it again.
Oops
Do you see Olbermann’s mistake? It took me a couple views. I’ll show you again with bold…
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.
Well that’s odd? Why not say “Nothing in this bill”? Why isolate it to the “subtitle”?
Section 246 falls under Subtitle C: Individual Affordability Credits. I am still trying to determine exactly how inclusive these credits are, but there are multiple divisions, titles and subtitles. There are 51 subtitles total, and only one has a provision for not allowing payments to “individuals who are not lawfully present in the U.S.”
Other subtitles shall allow coverage for illegals
So if nothing in Section 246 of Title II Subtitle C “shall allow” payments for these credits, what is to stop other subtitles from “allowing” payments? Absolutely nothing. Other subtitles include “Standards guaranteeing access to essential benefits,” “Governance,” and “Public Health Insurance Option.” Keith Olbermann is being lazy at best and disingenuous at worst.
Olbermann puts the fake nail in Joe Wilson’s non-existent “coffin”:
You got it wrong! There is no ambiguity. There is no disagreement. The bill says those here illegally will not be covered.
No, Keith, it does not. Coverage to illegals is only forbidden in 1 out of 51 subtitles. You got it wrong!
On top of all that, Mr. Olbermann, even if Section 246 of Subtitle C covered the entire bill, the bill has no provisions for enforcement.
As Rep. John Boehner pointed out, Republicans attempted to apply Section 246’s restriction to the entire bill with an amendment explicitly banning coverage for illegal aliens. The committee headed by Democrats voted it down. I am unaware whether the amendment addressed enforcement or not.
President Obama, Rep. Wilson was correct.
You lie
You are lying about coverage for illegal aliens.
While one could argue yelling in the middle of your speech was inappropriate, he broke no law, and its certainly not the first time a negative noise has been made by an elected official during a Presidential address.
And that, along with saying Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda and the KKK, is why Keith Olbermann gets less viewers than 10 Fox News programs, including Shephard Smith TWICE.