South Carolina Scores Wingnuttery Trifecta

The South Carolina people have suffered enough, haven’t they?  They had to endure the long, hot, steamy summer of Governor Mark Sanford’s “hike down the Appalachian Trail”, and his refusals to resign because he still has God’s work to do, comparing himself to King David.  This was no doubt inspired by his fellow C-Street pseudo-Christians.

Then, they have the embarrassment of a Senator, Lindsey Graham, who follows John McCain around like a puppy, and mumbles GOP talking points on “Meet the Press” like he is half-asleep.  He never tells the truth.  Never.

Now, South Carolina also has Representative Joe Wilson, who called the President a liar, during Obama’s televised speech on health care, while addressing both chambers of Congress.  That means that South Carolina has scored the “Wingnuttery Trifecta”.

Joes Wilson stated that he had apologized, but only for the outburst, not his own lie.  I know that he talked to Rahm Emanuel.  I would love to have heard that conversation.

Joe Wilson says that Obama’s health care reform bill would pay for illegal aliens to have health care.  Here’s what the bill actually says.  This health care bill specifically denies illegal aliens coverage:

H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

The Republican party has sunk to new lows, and now the whole world knows it.

PoliticoFact.com investigated Joe Wilson’s claims right away.  Here’s what they found:

Joe Wilson of South Carolina said Obama lied, but he didn’t

From PolitiFact.com:

We suspect it’s rare that the president gets heckled during a speech to a joint session of Congress, but Rep. Joe Wilson didn’t hold back.

“You lie!” shouted the South Carolina Republican. This was in response to President Barack Obama’s statements on illegal immigrants.

“There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants,” Obama said. “This, too, is false – the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”

So who’s right here? Wilson or Obama?

Incidentally, Wilson apologized for the outburst after the speech, but said he still disagreed with Obama’s statement.

We’ve been monitoring claims about health care reform and illegal immigrants for some time now. Most notably, a chain e-mail claimed that page 50 of the House bill gave free health care to illegal immigrants. That page didn’t say that. Rather, it included a generic nondiscrimination clause that said insurers may not discriminate with regard to “personal characteristics extraneous to the provision of high quality health care or related services.” So we rated the chain e-mail’s claim Pants on Fire.

When we look at all of this evidence, it seems that health reform leaves in place the status quo on illegal immigration, and certainly does not provide any new benefits particularly for illegal immigrants. We hope to look at this issue more in the days ahead, because some hospitals are particularly concerned about recouping their costs for treating illegal immigrants, and we’re curious to know more about that problem and how it might or might not be solved by reform.

The best argument that we find that health reform would help illegal immigrants is that some might be able to purchase the public option — if it passes, and it might not — on the new  health insurance exchange. They would purchase that at full cost. Obama’s said “the 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.

Now, Joe Wilson is asking for people to give him money to help him stop attacks from the left.  So, his thinking must be, “I call the President a liar, and then you reward me for it with money.”  Gee, that sounds logical.

Here’s what he says on his web site:

September 10, 2009 by Joe Wilson

Today I need your help more than ever before. I’ve been under attack by the liberal left for months because of my opposition to their policies, especially government-run healthcare. They’ve run commercials in my home district and flooded my office with phone calls and protestors. They’ve done everything they can to quiet my very vocal opposition to more government interference in our lives. Now, it’s gotten even worse.

But I will not stop fighting against their policies that will only lead to more government interference, more spending, and higher deficits.

Will you stand with me today by making a donation to my campaign? If you do, I’ll be able to fight back against the attacks by the liberal left.

But, Joe Wilson is wrong again.  It is not the “liberal left” that is attacking him.  *Americans* are attacking him for his outrageous behavior.  That includes John McCain, who denounced Joe Wilson’s actions:

John McCain Denounces Joe Wilson

So, if the Wingnut leaders have no self-control, is it any wonder that their right-wing authoritarian followers have no self-control either?

Earth, paging Joe Wilson.  Paging Joe Wilson…