What Caused the Representative To Say That?
President Barack Obama’s speech on September 9th regarding his new health care policy has been deemed “one of the most important speeches in his presidency” by BBC News, but politicians on both sides of the political division call it controversial. Speaking in the House of Representatives with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presiding, President Obama stated that the new policy “won’t cover illegal immigrants,” which caused South Carolina Republican Representative Joe Wilson to shout “You lie!” in front of everyone- the President, Vice President Joe Biden, and the entire House of Representatives. President Obama’s reaction to Representative Wilson was to say, “That’s not true,” after which he continued with his speech.
Representative Joe Wilson has since offered an apology and 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.”
President Obama has accepted Representative Wilson’s apology, saying, “I’m a big believer that we all make mistakes. He apologized quickly and without equivocation and I’m appreciative of that.”
The speeches President Obama gives are getting less and less television screen time. Wilson has gotten more screen time than President Obama, and about 32.1 million viewers tuned into the President’s health care policy speech as opposed to his first speech to a joint session of Congress, which drew about 52.4 million viewers, according to blogs.orlandosentinel.com.
But what caused Representative Wilson to say such a thing? There has been much debate over whether or not the new policy will cover people who are here illegally.
Nonetheless, Representative Wilson is correct in the fact that the illegal immigrants will get health care coverage regardless of their ineligibility because the children of illegal immigrants are citizens of the United States, making their parents then eligible for health care.
ObamaCare, or what President Obama’s new health care policy is unofficially called, states that everyone in the United States will be required to have health care, whether it is the insurance he or she currently has or a public insurance exchange that ensures public and private health insurance plans compete equally and transparently in the public marketplace. The government will be in charge of the health care, and analysts have concluded that ObamaCare is good news for healthcare investors.
Republicans, on the other hand, are generally opposed to ObamaCare, often because they do not want the government to be so involved in the matters of citizens. These same Republicans do not want as much taxes and are afraid that the government will put too much money into ObamaCare. They think that ObamaCare will lead to less freedom of choice, since it will be mandatory that all citizens buy health care. They also think that ObamaCare will be a move towards a socialist economy.
Only time can tell if ObamaCare will be chosen as the new official health care, but millions of Americans are currently without health care. As President Obama has said, “We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it.”
