“ALL CRETINS ARE LIARS!”

“’All Cretins are liars,’” said the Cretin. Prove or disprove the truth of this statement.” So began my college course in philosophy and logic. I have learned that it is not enough just to say that something is a lie, even if you are the President of the United States. You must prove your case, not merely issue a proclamation from on high as if it were a heavenly commandment. The same is true for members of Congress and for you and me.

As the judiciary likes to opine, one needs to look at “the totality of the circumstances” before truth can be derived. To begin with, the President said “the time for bickering is over” and it’s time for the “games” to end. By what power does he get to end the “game” and reduce heartfelt concerns and questions of millions of Americans to “bickering”? The latest polls show that 56% of Americans oppose his plan. As for reducing substantial issues to de minimus standing, what about using a joint session of Congress, customarily reserved for declarations of war or a State of the Union address, to deliver what was essentially a campaign speech?

To start with, the President referred to Sarah Palin’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal and many town hall protesters challenges to health care reform as “a lie”, “bogus”, and a “deliberate misrepresentation.” Although his breaches of decorum (including using the “bloody pulpit” to attack a private citizen) should be given equal weight to Congressman Wilson’s charge of “you lie,” they have not. However, rather than debate what I believe to be the impropriety of BOTH parties in this imbroglio, let’s examine the core issue that ignited the firestorm of controversy—health care for illegal aliens.

We’ll start by looking at the President’s health care plan. Wait…apparently we can’t because to date, all we have is HR 3200 and now the Baucus bill which directly and indirectly contradicts much of what the President said would be in his plan. Remember, he wanted a bill on his desk to sign last August so HR 3200 must bear his imprimatur in both form and content. Accordingly, the President can make all the pronouncements he chooses and use his excellent rhetorical skills ad infinitum, but the bottom line remains: it is the legislature that writes the legislation and what we must analyze. We finally have a Senate bill to look at and compare but it too fails to pass the smell test and also lacks tort reform.

Interestingly, in his speech, for the first time I heard the President use the phrase “thirty million uninsured Americans.” We used to hear numbers of 45 to 50 million uninsured. How come? Is it because now the spotlight is on the fact that illegal aliens previously were included? If not, why the new numbers? You simply cannot reach 46 million uninsured without including illegal aliens.

I hate being a policy wonk but although HR 3200 prohibits illegal aliens from receiving government-run healthcare it doesn’t require any proof of citizenship. Later on the bill also states that illegal immigrants are not eligible for the new taxpayer-funded affordability credits but once again, there is nothing in the bill to enforce these provisions! Furthermore, Section 152 states that all services shall be provided “…without regard to personal characteristics….” I surmise that means we’re on the honor system. Why would any reasonable person think that someone who is here illegally in the first place will now be honorable and not request benefits?

Another section provides that if one member of a family is afforded coverage, all members would have coverage. This would reasonably mean that if a child of illegal aliens is born in the United States, then all members of that family who are here illegally would then be eligible for health care benefits. And of course, free translation services will be provided to all individuals for whom English is not the primary language.

Now here’s another nail in the coffin of presidential errors. On July 16 an amendment that would have required the use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program to specifically prevent illegal immigrants from receiving the affordability credits was defeated by the House Ways and Means Committee. More than 70 other federal programs already use SAVE. This is not the only time Democratic committee members have insured that loopholes remain intact. On July 30 an amendment by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) that would have required identity verification for those claiming U.S. birth was defeated along party lines by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It is clear that the devil remains in the details and that the Democratic committee members want the loopholes to remain. To their credit, after the brouhaha, the Senate committee hurriedly returned to work to “drill down” and added verification requirements to their health care proposal.

As a society, we are falling into a dangerous practice of making technically accurate statements with the intent to deceive. So Mr. President, until you show me and the rest of the 56% of the American voters in plain language and in written legislation the truth of your allegations, it’s just unsubstantiated huff ‘n puff rhetoric. The details in the legislation clearly contradict what you said. I’ll leave it up to the voters to determine what is true, what is a lie, and what is an intent to deceive. Based on the available evidence in the written legislative proposals, I have already made up my mind!

WLG