Eye On The St.Pete Times2

(NOTE: Please see Blue link at end of story.)

So, who really lied on Sept. 9, 2009? President Obama? Congressman Joe Wilson? Or the Politifact gang at the St. Petersburg Times?
After reading all 1,016 pages of HR 3200 -- The America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (Unlike the St. Pete Times reporter, I did read it), the inviolable fact is, President Obama did indeed lie. When Congressman Wilson shouted, "You lie!", and the Politifact writers enthusiastically wrote that Wilson lied, what in fact occurred is, the St. Petersburg Times lied.

First, let us examine the Times "False" ruling that said Rep. Joe Wilson lied when he shouted out that Obama lied.
To quote the Times: "Obama said, 'The (healthcare) reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally,' which Wilson said was a 'lie.' Actually, Obama can make a pretty thorough case that reform doesn't apply to those here illegally. We don't find the public option argument enough to make the case that Obama 'lied.' We rate Wilson's statement False."
NEWS FLASH To The St. Petersburg Times: Obama cannot make a pretty thorough case about anything, much less that illegal aliens cannot access taxpayer-funded health care benefits under the proposed plan.
Of course, the reason no one from the Obama Administration is concerned about the bill providing benefits to illegal aliens is that next year's amnesty plans would make illegal aliens no longer illegal, and therefore eligible for taxpayer-funded healthcare anyway. But that's a story for another day.

The story today is that the reforms -- without an amendment -- will apply to illegal aliens. Unfortunately, an amendment proposed on July 16th by Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), that would have required use of the SAVE program to prevent illegal immigrants from receiving affordabilty credits and other benefits of HR 3200 was defeated by the House Ways and Means Committee.
The acronym SAVE stands for the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, which is used by government programs such as Medicaid that face similar illegal immigrant issues.

Without SAVE, and without enforcement language, HR 3200 offers wide-open doors for illegal immigrants to walk through. The bill is profoundly silent on how -- in daily practice -- program administrators are supposed to enforce the two little clauses that supposedly deny benefits to illegal aliens. Since the "public option" seems to be a dead issue, we're basically left with "affordability credits." (Oh - right - there's always the Emergency Room).

As the Times itself noted, "It (the bill) is largely silent on the issue of illegal immigrants."
Yes, Politifact reporters and editors -- it is so silent, the echoes bouncing around Obama's White House have Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel back together singing their new album, "The Sounds Of Illegal Silence." But the halls won't be silent for long because the collective cries of thousands upon thousands of illegally delivered babies will soon be filling Washington and our 51 states (A "51st stater" is a non-citizen who tries to be an American), funded by hard-working but duped taxpayers who expect -- and deserve -- protection from this kind of government-sponsored robbery. If all 6.6 million uninsured illegal immigrants with incomes below 400 percent of poverty receive "affordability credits," the estimated cost to the federal government would be $30.5 billion annually. Let's say even one-third of those utilize the system, we're still talking about $10 billion of taxpayer dollars going to support people who are in the United States illegally. That should never happen. But without enforcement provisions being tacked onto HR 3200, it will happen. READ THAT AGAIN: Without enforcement provisions. President Obama knows HR 3200 lacks enforcement language on illegal aliens, but he does not want to alienate illegal immigrants because they and their legal counterparts are future supporters .

Yes, my friends, my readers. Rep. Joe Wilson did not lie. Obama lied. Worse yet, the Watchdog newspaper reporters and editors at Politifact -- who are supposed to be the eyes and ears of the community -- lied. They lied again, in blind support of their man, Obama.

To prove this further, let us examine the few paragraphs that mention illegal immigrants in this bill.
Section 246 -- "No Federal payment for undocumented aliens."
It reads verbatim:
"Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."
But this language does not provide any mechanism to ensure illegal aliens will actually be prevented from accessing the system.
Now, a casual reader may say, "Well, gee, it says right there that it doesn't allow Federal payments for illegal aliens."
But the point is, no enforcement language accompanies that clause. This fact becomes glaringly apparent when one understands how other issues, such as "misvalued codes," are addressed in minutae in this bill and in the Social Security act itself, which this bill modifies.
For example, in section 249-250, as in many other sections, the specifics on how to implement rules are Lilliputian in detail as follows:

SCHEDULE.
19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 1848(c)(2) of the Social
20 Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w–4(c)(2)) is amended by
21 adding at the end the following new subparagraphs:
22 ‘‘(K) POTENTIALLY MISVALUED CODES.—
23 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary
24 shall:
1 ‘‘(I) periodically identify services
2 as being potentially misvalued using
3 criteria specified in clause (ii); and
4 ‘‘(II) review and make appropriate adjustments to the relative values established under this paragraph
7 for services identified as being potentially misvalued under subclause (I).
‘‘(ii) IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIALLY MISVALUED CODES.—For purposes of identifying potentially misvalued services pursuant to clause (i)(I), the Secretary shall examine codes (and families of codes as appropriate) for which there has been the fastest growth; codes and families of codes that have experienced substantial changes in practice; codes for new technologies or services within an appropriate period (such as three years) after the relative values are initially established for such codes; multiple codes that are frequently billed in conjunction with furnishing a single service " .... and on-and-on it goes for pages about codes, and payments, etc, etc.

But does it go on-and-on about enforcement of already sparse provisions barring access by illegal aliens? No. Only silence on that subject.
And after reading about codes in such technical, well-thought out, specific language as in 249-250, the bill's silence on implementation and enforcement of rules for illegal immigrants is particularly profound.
I'm sure not all Democratic Congressmen could have missed the fact that HR 3200 does not require identity verification for those claiming U.S. birth.

And I challenge anyone at the St. Petersburg Times and Politifact to show me where it does. Obviously, Obama lied to the American people and got caught. Thank God for courageous Congressmen such as Joe Wilson who cares more about the American people than the opinion of a Politically Correct propagnada machine like the St. Petersburg Times. He ought to get a medal.

So I ask the Politifact gang at the Times: How can you "rule" that what Rep. Joe Wilson shouted at President Obama is False? That's the same as calling him a liar. The fact is, Wilson is right -- Obama did lie. If he hadn't been lying, he could have responded to Wilson with more than just a shake of his hung head.
A NOTE TO POLITIFACT: Reporters and editors who do not know how to interpret a bill in Congress should stick to their own baliwick -- restaurant reviews (nice job on hamburgers Albright).

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By Paul A. Kimpel