Joe Wilson Reprimand Demonstrates Democrats' Hypocrisy
By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Having initially announced that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's apology for his interruption of President Barack Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress was sufficient, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may eventually rue the day she changed her mind.
Tuesday the House voted, virtually along party lines, to approve a resolution of disapproval lodged against Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, for calling out "you lie" when Obama claimed during his speech that paying the healthcare costs of uninsured illegal immigrants was not part of the healthcare reform agenda.
At the time, the only healthcare reform package available for public examination was H.R. 3200, the bill introduced and passed out of several committees in the U.S. House of Representatives. And it, according to a number of knowledgeable critics of the bill, treats illegals quite differently than the president suggested was the case during his speech.
Since Wilson registered his objection, administration officials have been spitting hairs, claiming Obama was talking about his proposal, not H.R. 3200. However, the White House has yet to send its version of healthcare reform legislation to Capitol Hill, making it difficult to render a final conclusion on the president's veracity.
Nevertheless Pelosi has opened herself up for considerable criticism by bringing the issue of Wilson's remark to the floor for an official and, say critics, needless rebuke.
U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Conference and No. 3 in the chamber's GOP leadership, said Wednesday that Wilson's action was an "understandable" response to the "harsh partisanship" coming from the president and wondered why Pelosi was "taking time in the people's house to demand an apology from someone (Wilson) who had already apologized" at a time when there are any number of much more serious issues for the House to consider.
Acknowledging that Wilson's interruption of the president was "regrettable," Pence suggested it may have nonetheless served the broader national interest by shine additional sunlight on one of the more conspicuous problems with the House Democratic leadership's healthcare package.
More to the point, the vote to render official House disapproval of Wilson's comment stands in stark contrast to Pelosi's failure to lead the House in a public admonishing of several current and former member of her own Democratic caucus, including current House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., who recently revised several of his financial disclosure forms to correct "misstatements" and former Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who was found to have a large cache of cash hidden in a freezer in his Washington home.
Jefferson, who lost his bid for re-election in 2008, was later found guilty on 11 counts of corruption.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill are already comparing what was done to Wilson to "Indiana 8," a seminal moment for the GOP in its efforts to retake control of the Congress from the Democrats after four decades.
In that case Republican Rick McIntyre won an extremely close race in Indiana's 8th Congressional District in 1984. But a complaint was lodged and the Democratically-controlled House eventually voted on party lines to seat McIntyre's Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Frank McCloskey. Enraged, then-House Republican leader Bob Michel, R-Ill., led his partisan colleagues in a "walk out" of the chamber in protest of the outcome.
The decision to seat McCloskey over McIntyre, who had been certified as the winner by Indiana's secretary of state, convinced a number of moderate Republicans that the only way they were ever going to get a fair shake from the Democrats was to actually take control of the House—a significant turn of events that help a backbench Georgia congressman named Newt Gingrich win a place in the GOP leadership. Whether the action taken against Wilson will be seen as a defining moment in the GOP's march back to majority has yet to be determined but some people are already drawing comparisons.
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Reader Comments
Joe Wilson and Repubs funded illegals healthcare in 2003 to now.
Peter .. WTF was this phrase? "according to a number of knowledgeable critics " Name those critics because all the critics that I have seen are partisan hacks that have the legal and economic skills of a 3rd grader.
HR3200
Sec 246 ... bans any federal money for illegals under the program
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf
pg 143
The fact is that in 2003 Republicans passed and Bush signed the the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which contained Sec. 1011 authorizing $250 million annually between 2003 and 2008 for government reimbursements to hospitals who provide treatment for uninsured illegal immigrants.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-voted-to-provi_n_284034.html
BTW, Joe Wilson and Republicans overwhlmingly voted for this bill to pay illegals medical costs in 2003.
There is your hypocrisy.
Wow Idoits from both sides are out today!
Wilson was wrong to say that when he did.
But I dare anyone to deny was right, not about when he said it, what he said. HR3200 clearly states in the bill that Illegal Aliens will not ne covered under this plan, But the bill does not change the current law about people showing up to an Emergency room cannot be turned away. So, yes H.R. 3200 will cover illegal aliens in the event of an Emergency. Also Since they know this illegal aliens will continue to go to the emergency room for headaches and stomach viruses. Now One thing which is true is HR3200 is not a bill yet, still. So everything can still be changed. We need to improve our HealthCare system drasstically but I am firm believer that we should try some obvious cost cutting factors before we scrap our system completely for a new system. As for defensers of the President's speech he is either lying or he is simply speaking from wishful thinking or no thinking. There is no way mathematically possible for the US to insure 50 million more people without increasing taxes on the middle & lower classes, No way can we provide service for more people with the same amount of medical proffesionals without rationing care. As for, "I get to keep my system if I like it" Sounds good in theory, but until something is finalized ina bill how you garaunty that? When a reporter asked Gibbs how that was possible he told the reporter to not take the president's word so literal.
I agree that something has to be done, but lets fix what we have not change what we don't like.
As for Joe he should appologize to anybody who asks him to for his outburst, not for what he said but when he said it.
As for "the Party of No" comments. Look at all the quotes from Thomas Jefferson posted you've ever seen. How many tell us what our government should not do as opposed to what they should do? It's about half and half. With that being said opposition is very important in the political process. Just because you don't have an idea of your own doens't mean you do not see when an idea is a bad one.
Whatever happened to supporting your coutry? Whatever happened to a country standing for something? Our country has always been about capatalism, freedoms, and family. Capatalism if left unchecked can go bad, but it's the fault of the American people as well as our politicians. But why were we as American Consumers/Citizens content with our mfg. plants going oversees, CEOs making the money they made. You know why, because we had money, when the CEO's stopped taking care of us and started taking care of corrupt politicians (From Both Sides) we stil didn't say anything. We didn't say anything negative about capatalism until it got to late. We were warned about this just like out Politicians where, but were happy to sit on the sidelines.
America is Capatalism to vilify Capatalism is to vilify America.
Sorry for not staying on topic and ranting. I will try to post a response as you write it next time.
Wilson
Never heard of anyone calling a president a lie before...in congress.....Never heard of anyone calling Bush a liar, which he did....Wilson never called Bush a liar...he declared prejudice still exist even on capitol hill.....still exist in America....Ending the war, as long as man will exist there will still be wars..This is for gorilla of nm...if you can take off that sheet in the daytime, stop wearing it at night...It is not about liberals.....IT is because the President is black....give yourself a break and stop drinking all that sugar and bs you keep burping up...
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