How come all the righties who drop by here and tell me to “read the bill” — very obviously haven’t read “the bill”?
For that matter, they seem unaware that there isn’t any one “bill” but several versions of bills floating around in Congress at the moment. However, the one being referred to as “the bill” is H.R. 3200, which I believe is the only version that’s advanced enough to have been published. It’s on the Thomas Library of Congress website.
The charge was that President Obama was lying about illegal immigrants not getting free health care. Rep. Wilson heckled the President on this point, and today a number of rightiebots are marching around saying “Obama lied read the bill … Obama lied read the bill… Obama lied read the bill.”
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you this bit from 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.
So if H.R. 3200 is “the bill,” then it was Wilson who lied, not Obama.
Recently the Annenberg “Fact Check” site published “Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200,” which answers a viral email being spread by health care reform opponents. It’s a good resource. Of course, there’s nothing better than finding the precise wording in “the bill” itself to show the “read the bill” crowd that they ought to read the bill.