I didn’t watch President Obama’s speech last night, primarily because I was occupied with the family. I was also pretty sure what I was going to hear and, with 2 exceptions, I was right. The 1st was the mention of tort reform I’ve already written about this morning. The other was the outburst of Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) when he reacted to President Obama’s assurances that illegal immigrants won’t be covered under Obamacare by yelling out, “You lie!” or something to that effect.
H.R. 3200 is explicit about this matter: persons in the United States illegally may not apply for or acquire health benefits as described in the bill. So, strictly speaking, the President didn’t lie. However, the bill contains absolutely no measures to actually detect whether an applicant is, in fact, a “person in the United States illegally.” Also in fact, an amendment proposed that would have placed such abilities into the bill was specifically killed by Democrats in the committee in which the amendment was proposed. H.R. 3200’s inability to detect illegals attempting to gain access to the health benefits Obama insists they won’t be allowed access to is an inability explicitly engineered by Democrats in Congress and they’re doing what Obama wants done. So, was it a lie? No. Was it a misleading assertion? Oh, yes. Yes, it was.
Does that excuse Wilson’s outburst? Not a chance. Obama’s own language in the speech – calling assertions that the bill will allow illegals to be covered “lies” and, by extension, those making such assertions “liars” – could certainly be viewed as provoking a response. But a sense of decorum and professionalism on the part of members of Congress should have kept any vocal response from rising to calling the President a liar on national television. Wilson has already apologized for letting his emotions run away with him. Good. He should have. And, you’ll note, that his apology isn’t the non-apology apology that several members of the Left have made into an art form. From an article over at the Huffington Post:
Not long after the speech ended, Wilson issued an apology. “This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” he said. “While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.” Wilson also called the White House to apologize.
There’s none of that “if anyone was offended” or “apologies to anyone who might have been offended” nonsense. He knows full well that his actions would be viewed as an offense by any reasonable person and he doesn’t try to mitigate his error. Good for him.
What bothers me the most as I wander the ’sphere this morning looking at the reactions is the incensed outrage on the Left over this incident and the wider outrage about the reactions of the Republicans as a whole. The general feeling, it appears, is that the Left thinks the Republicans should have either been standing in applause or sitting completely still and quiet during the entire speech. Where were these people the last several years? Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air wonders the same thing and uses the 2005 State of the Union address as an example. If you’re of the opinion that the Republicans last night were acting in an unprecedented manner, as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apparently does, you need to watch this video and tell me what you think this is all about:
Unfortunately, people on the Left want to keep hyperventilating about this as though the world was born on the day Barack Obama won the presidential election. As Omri Ceren and Michelle remind people, the Democrats were hardly models of decorum in the last administration. Here’s a clip from the State of the Union speech in 2005, when George Bush warned Congress that Social Security was going broke and needed reform immediately. Did Democrats politely listen to the warning? Not exactly. Listen to the boos and catcalls:
The SOTU speech in 2005 was not unique. Morrissey asks the same question I did when I read the first post this morning demanding widespread apologies from the entire GOP side of Congress: did any of those demand apologies from their side for the rudeness displayed in that video? Did any Democrat offer such an apology. No and no. When their side takes decorum toward a sitting president seriously enough to demand better treatment toward a president from the other party, I’ll take their demands for decorum on our side more seriously. Until then, I’ll just note that Congressman Wilson offered his apology in short order and didn’t qualify it. His outburst wasn’t right but his reaction to it has been. I’m satisfied that we, at least, are acting honorably.
Well, that didn’t take long. Not even a week after I last posted on a positive development in the ongoing saga of Loudoun’s abysmally-behind medical facilities we are now seeing Inova’s management starting to waver on their commitment to support the building of an HCA hospital in southern Loudoun. Via The Loudoun Scoop you can find this story over at the Loudoun Times-Mirror:
Inova Health System, parent of Inova Loudoun Hospital, has notified Health Commissioner Karen Remley that it will stand by its pledge not to block a “genuine relocation” of the 164-bed hospital from Broadlands to U.S. 50. But, the letter goes on, HCA’s real intentions could be to tie the beds up and to use them somewhere else, perhaps in its Reston Hospital Center expansion.
Approving the relocation without requiring the project to be completed on U.S. 50, the letter continues, “would be akin to handing HCA paper beds (and paper ORs and a paper cardiac cath lab, etc.)” and preventing the development of health-care facilities in the entire planning district “until the real plan is unveiled.”
HCA Vice President Mark Foust countered that his company has been trying to build a hospital in Loudoun for the last eight years, “dodging Inova’s roadblocks all that time. The real question is whether Inova will keep its two promises: first, withdrawing its Route 50 application, and second, refraining from challenging ours.”
Aside from self-interested suspicion, is there any evidence whatsoever that HCA is considering such an action? Has there been any proof during this entire 8-year ordeal that HCA has had any aim but to build a hospital in Loudoun County? If there is, Inova needs to pony it up and I mean right now, today. To make such a blanket accusation with no proof smells like Inova’s not too keen on keeping its promise, a promise it reiterated just a week ago today.
They’ve even got a list of demands in there and the list is built in such a way as to give themselves a supposed rationale for bailing out of their promise. One of those items, a demand that the State “[r]equire HCA to notify all other hospitals in the planning district of any filings with the Department of Health” is just arrogance of amazing proportion. Filings with State institutions are held to the exact same specifications for all applicants. Inova wants special treatment where their competitors are concerned. Are they not able to avail themselves of the public record on who has filed what with the State agency, just like any other hospital. What is it, precisely, that gives them the impression that they are owed notifications that they, themselves, do not provide anyone else?
So, here we go again. Inova clearly does not want any other medical firm to be present in Loudoun. They like their monopoly and they’re doing what they can to seal it in. The Loudoun Board of Supervisors should weigh in on this demand with the State agency in the strong negative and they should do so quickly. HCA should be held to exactly the same requirements as any other provider and Inova should be told to mind their own damned business. Such as keeping their freely-given word.
Sarah Palin has generated quite a following online at her Facebook page and, unlike many I’ve seen here in the ’sphere, I applaud her continued participation. She wrote a response to the President’s speech last night and posted it on her page. The only difficulty I have with her use of that venue is that the impression among most people is that they need to have a Facebook account to even see it. I just tested this and it appears that’s untrue – you can read Palin’s page just fine without logging in to Facebook. Fair enough.
In her response, Palin points out something positive and I’d like to give her words on that a wider audience:
It was heartening to hear the President finally recognize that tort reform is an important part of any solution. But this concession shouldn’t lead us to take our eye off the ball: the Democrats’ proposals will not reduce costs, and they will not deliver better health care. It’s this kind of “healthy skepticism of government” that truly reflects a “concern and regard for the plight of others.” We can’t wait to hear the details on that; we look forward to working with you on tort reform.
Tort reform is certainly not the end-all, be-all of healthcare reform but it is most certainly a significant part. It’s a part that has been not just ignored by the President and supporters (in terms of working it into the overall plan) but the mere suggestion that it should be addressed has been vilified openly. Like Mrs. Palin, I’m glad to see that it’s finally being addressed and I’m eager to see and hear the details.
JR Hoeft over at Bearing Drift has the latest example of sign defacement here in the Old Dominion. This post deals with events in Newport News and, it appears, Deeds campaign staff members were directly involved. There have been more examples of this kind of action recently, this one from Buena Vista taken by Matt Wertman. (Thanks to Ken Cuccinelli for highlighting this.)
Deeds supporters – and other Democrat campaigns, frankly – have this idea in mind that it’s perfectly OK to obscure or outright deface Republican campaign signage. They’re just dandy fine with free speech, as long as it’s their speech that’s free. They’re not so cool with anyone opposed to them having that right. It says a lot about their approach and their antics deserve wide reporting. Not that we’ll get it from outfits like the Washington Post, of course, but we’ll have to do the best we can.
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