Fact-checking Joe Wilson

*Scroll down for updates, including one from William Jacobson.

Law professor William Jacobson has fact-checked Rep. Joe Wilson's statement, "You lie!":

So using the two measures, the non-existent Obama bill and the draft Senate HELP Committee bill which was not a full Senate proposal, Obama was correct.

But if the standard is the full House Bill, HR3200, then it appears that Obama was incorrect. There is nothing in HR3200 that excludes illegal aliens from the various coverage provisions (with a few limited exceptions). The Congressional Research Service agrees with this assessment (full report embedded below). For example, with regard to health care exchanges, the CRS found:

H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens—whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently—participating in the Exchange.

Since the Obama administration wanted a full House vote passing HR3200 prior to the August recess, Obama was okay with a bill that included illegal aliens.

Was Obama a "liar" meaning that he had knowledge of the falsehood of the statement he made at the time he made it? Hard to say. Maybe Obama was playing word games like Bill Clinton did as to the definition of "is." Or maybe Obama simply was mistaken as was George Bush on WMDs in Iraq.

UPDATE: One of the talking points I have seen in numerous comments posted around the blogosphere is that Obama was correct because Section 246 of the House Bill excludes illegals from receiving Individual Affordability Credits. That is true, and one of the few exceptions under the Bill. But it is the exception which proves the rule. As the CRS found, illegal aliens can participate in most of the critical aspects of the government health system including the health care exchanges. [What follows is an update] Added: It also would be interesting to see how long the exclusion of illegal aliens from getting the credits lasted, since as the CRS notes, illegal aliens are subject to the health care mandate; one can anticipate the argument that if the House Bill requires illegals to have qualified health insurance, some accomodation needs to be made for those who cannot afford it.

Let's give Prof. Jacobson credit for giving the president the benefit of the doubt, especially considering Obama's often strained relationship with truth. But whether Obama uttered his misrepresentations with or without full knowledge and consent of the will, he's quite willing to accuse others of lying. He did it on Monday in his speech to the AFL-CIO and he did it again last night, targeting a certain ex-governor and VP candidate. From Ace of Spades HQ:

So Obama calls Palin a liar (not by name but everyone knows who he's talking about) but we are supposed to get our panties in a bunch because Wilson yelled it out? At least Wilson had the guts to do it to in the same room.

Matthew Archbold believes that Joe Wilson was right. He lists a few of the lies and Doug Ross lists a few more. But be warned: they'll call us out if we misrepresent what's in the plan. (I think that's what Wilson was doing.*)

Allahpundit takes umbrage at the audacity of lecturing on civility:

The culprit was South Carolina rep Joe Wilson, who felt moved to act when The One told what was, in fact, a lie. Although certainly not his biggest of the night: Where this jackass gets off lecturing Americans on civility after his cretinous cronies spent a month demagoging the hell out of every protester in sight is beyond me. You’re Mr. Clean, aren’t you, champ? And bottom-feeders like Harry Reid are your hatchet men. Nice work if you can get it.

I’m told that his magic number of “47 million” uninsured Americans magically dropped to 30 million uninsured in this speech, presumably to omit the illegal immigrants who were inflating the tally.

Nice Deb applauds Rep. Wilson:

If this is the beginning of UK Parliament style proceedings, with lots of yelling and cat calls, so be it. That can be Barry’s legacy. The man who promised to end divisiveness will go down as the man who’s shameless and audacious lies inspired an uprising not only amongst an alarmed citizenry, but also amongst Washington pols forced to listen to them.

Dan Riehl finds that he is Joe Wilson:

I will say it was refreshing to see someone with a passion for truth unthinkingly inject some into a hall all too lacking in it last night thanks to Obama. In that sense, as cliche and leftist as it might sound, I very much am Joe Wilson in this case. And I am delighted to have seen at least one person there who actually spoke for me.

Rep. Wilson quickly apologized. Demagogue Patrick Leahy is shocked, shocked, that protocol has been breached in this manner. Long-winded lies, corruption, and character assassination are the norm in the Capitol but this two-word truth crosses the line. I don't know just what went through Rep. Wilson's mind, but I can understand how, in a conflict between respecting the office of the POTUS, a worthy value, and standing up for truth and our liberty, the latter might take precedence.

*Update: Honest, I didn't steal that line from Michelle Malkin, who is not buying the outrage on the left. Read her take here.

*Follow-up on Joe Wilson here.

*Follow-up from Prof. Jacobson:

Given that Section 246 so clearly is narrow and so clearly does not prove that Obama was correct in his speech, I wondered how it was that, within hours of Obama's speech, blog comment sections and blog posts were being plastered by people quoting Section 246 as "proof" that Obama was right and Wilson was wrong. Even my own blog post received comments from people quoting Section 246.

Realistically, how many people had dug into the 1018 pages of the House Bill to find Section 246?

The answer is that at 9:51 p.m. on the night of Obama's speech Media Matters, the Democratic media operation, issued an Action Alert claiming that Section 246 was "Proof That "You Lie!" Was A Lie" and that "in reality, Rep. Wilson is the liar."

In addition to Media Matters' other distribution methods, that Action Alert was sent out by Media Matters via Twitter and re-tweeted over 200 times.

Comments welcome.
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