Anyone turn on the tv lately? As if town hall meetings going ballistic hadn't been enough, many are now arguing over the following speech given by President Obama and a shout from disgruntled congressman, Joe Wilson. 

 The big question around the US now is, who's telling the truth?  I've watched a lot of youtube videos and seen a lot of comments, calling President Obama or Joe Wilson a liar.  How many of these people have actually done their research and read HR3200?

I decided to see what the heck is really going on and where all these claims are coming from...

Wilson finally accused President Obama of lying when the President stated that the health care reforms in bill HR3200 would not cover illegal immigrants.  The main points to consider in this gigantic bill, covering illegal immigrants getting covered in health care, are directly quoted below:

"Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

"Absent of a provision in the bill specifying the verification procedure, that the Commissioner would be responsible for determining a mechanism to verify the eligibility of noncitizens for the credits."  (Which many argue proves President Obama is telling the truth).

At this point, its looks fairly clear:  President Obama was telling the truth, right?  I hate to say it, but lets look more indepth at the statements.  The first statement is pretty basic and outlined, correct?  Guess what, there are some very important things missing... 

The bill contains no verification requirement or enforcement process for citizenship or legal residency, as exists for other federal benefit programs. The only verification required for the subsidies pertains to family income. Beyond that,  everything is left in the hands of the Health Choices Commissioner.  *second statement*.

The Congressional Research Service and many many other interpreters have concluded that President Obama is wrong.  What does this mean to us then?  It all comes down to three options:  1.  President Obama is lying  2.  President Obama is incorrect and/or uninformed  3.  The information above and research done by many organizations is false.

Now about Joe Wilson...

Was he right about standing up to President Obama and crying out "liar" in the middle of a speech?  Here's some views I have on it:

My first thoughts on the matter was that "this guy is totally out of line, way to make a fool out of the GOP..."  I decided that I would give Wilson a shot though and try to find out what could have possessed the man to claim our President was a liar.  After I realized that Wilson really could have been correct, I was still mad at Wilson, but for apologizing-basically backing off and being spineless (I quickly had a change of heart).

Guys, no matter what the situation is, we've gotta, gotta, gotta be respectful.  I don't care if the speaker is some midget with a lisp that somewhat resembles Mini Me (sorry if I've offended anyone) at a townhall meeting or our President, lets keep the anger bottled up and bring up concerns when our turn comes along.  But what about the other hand...

Its our civic duty to voice our concerns about policies and our thoughts.  Sure Wilson didn't really do it in a positive way but it got our attention!  I don't agree with his methods, but after looking at the facts I have to thank Wilson for hopefully spreading curiosity and, eventually, truth around.

 Oh, and for all those democrats out there doing a fit about republicans being overcritical and rude of President Obama, lets go back to the Bush administration, when the majority of democrats booed President Bush a few years ago...  (Hmmm.....one republican voicing an opinion versus a gang of democrats booing....).  Can't we all just get along?  (lets not answer that in the comments :D  )