Representative Wilson's Outburst

Last Wednesday, President Obama delivered his anticipated health care reform speech to a joint session of Congress. He received, as expected, a very enthusiastic greeting from the Democrats there and a reserved-but-polite greeting from the Republicans. Until he began his debunking phase of the address, that is.

What got the Republicans in the audience to suddenly perk up their ears was Obama's passionate characterization, as lies, of fringe arguments from the political far right about "death panels". Then, once he had the GOP's attention, the President went to the issue of illegal immigrants possibly being able to obtain health insurance through the proposed plans. He described this idea as "false", pointing to a clause in the bills prohibiting "illegals" from receiving proposed benefits. And then the GOP side of the aisle disintegrated into loud murmurs and hoots. In the midst of this break with decorum, Representative Joe Wilson (R, South Carolina) angrily shouted out "You lie!"

Obama went on with his speech, but afterwards there were many on both sides of the aisle very critical of Wilson for his outburst. To me, it just seemed to be a logical continuation of the hateful, aggressive tone of the so-called tea parties, the "birthers", vicious talk radio (and television) hosts, and shout-'em-down angry town hall protesters. Too bad, for I believe that the obnoxious congressman may have a point. Kind of.

I've seen this happen before in legislation, where something is ostensibly written into a bill, but which is effectively nullified when the bill's body contains no provisions for enforcement or financing of that item. A few years ago, the George W. Bush administration touted its "No Child Left Behind" legislation, which on the surface sounded great but in reality didn't provide for its own funding. I don't know for sure whether or not there are mechanisms within the proposed health insurance reform bills to enforce prohibitions against illegal immigrants receiving proposed benefits, but it seems to be a perfectly legitimate issue to raise. After all, if not enforced, this could cause the costs of this bill to soar to unsustainable levels. And the President himself has said that he won't sign a bill that adds even one dime to the national debt.

But there are avenues through which an opposition party can express their disagreements, more than ever before in today's world of multiple cable news channels and the Internet. Representative Wilson deserves to be castigated, but so do the other Republicans who raised their voices during that time in the President's speech. After all, it was their outbursts that created the setting for Wilson's shout-out.

With this recent dumbing down of conservative rhetoric, it is not the political left that is suffering. There are some great principles to the conservative way of thinking which complement the liberal outlook to make a dynamic, constructive political environment. But they are being obscured by the current hate speech and fear-mongering. When I see hateful, aggressive commentators like Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck, I know that I will NOT be receiving an honest, conservative take on the issues. And it's sad to see elected representatives like Joe Wilson copy their tone.