A Lie by any Other Name Still Decieves

Last night South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson voiced the opinion of millions of Americans when he shouted "You Lie" during President Obama's speech. Truth is the President statement that his health care plan will not cover illegals is probably untrue for many reasons and a statement need not be a lie to deceive. If the President was saying that his health care plan won't cover illegals because his immigration plan will make illegals legal that is still a deception. However, what and where is the President's health care plan? The answer is there isn't one. There are several bills floating around but none was authored by the Obama administration and if he is supporting one of these bills he has yet to signal which one. Obama had the nerve to tell the Republicans "If you have a better plan where is it?" Too bad for him several members had copies of their bills with them which they waved in response to a question he must have meant to be hypothetical.

The demonstrated shock and outrage is excessive and hypocritical. Media pundits and politicians have repeated over and over another lie that this outburst is "unprecedented". The only thing that makes the occurrence "unprecedented" is that a single voice rang out rather than the crowd of boos heard from Democrats at the 2004 state of the union speech given by President Bush. For eight years it was considered brillant and or fashionable to call the President a liar Now it is suddenly beyond the pale to do such a disrespectful thing.

This double standard is nothing new. Democrats can get away with stupid statements, tax evasion, criminality and extra marital activities for which Republicans are forced to apologise repeatedly until they are forced to resign. Republicans are criticized unless they play by the Marquess of Queensberry rules and Democrats get a pass from their party, their supporters and the media.

The bipartisan laugh Obama got when he said "there are a lot of details to be worked out" was actually the most embarrassing moment of the speech. Yep, our President told us that he can provide insurance coverage to more people with no loss of quality for less money. If that isn't a lie I don't know what is.