This weekend one of my right-wing friends shared this image on her Facebook page:
If the Health Care Reform Plan is so great, why does it exempt our president, Congress, Senators and their familys (Page 113 Line 22)
To which I immediately responded:
BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT EXEMPT:
"Media have falsely claimed President Obama, members of his administration, and certain congressional staff are "exempt" from the recently enacted health care bill. In fact, the bill subjects the White House, members of Congress, and their staffs to the same reforms and requirements as the rest of the American people."
"White House, Congress required to carry health insurance like everyone else. Starting in 2014, Americans will be required to have minimum health insurance coverage, with exemptions for certain people with religious objections or the inability to afford coverage. The bill does not exempt government employees such as leaders and staffers at the White House and Congress."
Media falsely claim Obama and staff are "exempt" from health care reform
And then somebody came along and said:
Not sure I'd believe the article, since it includes the falsehood about certain people getting exemptions because of religious objections. Just as the Catholic hierarchy about that.
To which I replied:
So because it says "with exemptions for certain people with religious objections" (not ALL religious exemptions that are claimed), the entire article is suspect? Wow! So a photo put together by who knows who on the Internet (like somebody who has a political point to score based on lies), trumps actual research. All that information about the President and Congress NOT being exempt from the law has to be wrong because of the way you interpret part of a sentence in the entire article. Amazing.
Didn't the Catholic hierarchy already file lawsuits to challenge that portion of the law?
I wonder how that's going to work out? Perhaps reading what Justice Antonin Scalia says about the subject of religious exemptions in another case might give us a clue:
"It is a permissible reading of the text, in the one case as in the other, to say that if prohibiting the exercise of religion (or burdening the activity of printing) is not the object of the tax but merely the incidental effect of a generally applicable and otherwise valid provision, the First Amendment has not been offended..."
(snip)
"Our most recent decision involving a neutral, generally applicable regulatory law that compelled activity forbidden by an individual's religion was United States v. Lee, 455 U.S., at 258 -261. There, an Amish employer, on behalf of himself and his employees, sought exemption from collection and payment of Social Security taxes on the ground that the Amish faith prohibited participation in governmental support programs. We rejected the claim that an exemption was constitutionally required. There would be no way, we observed, to distinguish the Amish believer's objection to Social Security taxes from the religious objections that others might have to the collection or use of other taxes."
Antonin Scalia, trampler on religious freedom
I found another run-down of what actually is in the Affordable Care Act does. Since I didn't find a mention of religious exemptions, hopefully it is more acceptable response to the flat out lie in the graphic above (It appears just below what takes effect on 1/1/2014):
Congress and Congressional staff will only be offered the same insurance offered to people in the insurance exchanges, rather than Federal Insurance. Basically, we won't be footing their health care bills any more than any other American citizen.
What exactly is Obamacare and what did it change?
Any responses after that?
The one good thing that came out of this was that before this post, I was not aware that the PPACA makes Congress and the President get the same health care as every other American Citizen. What a selling point. Right? Of course, to blatantly turn this portion of the bill on its head and claim the complete opposite is astonishing to anybody who cares about truth and honesty.
Knowing my friend for over 20 years, I made the misguided assumption that her integrity would cause her to remove the post from her wall, since I had provided proof that it was a lie. I was wrong. Rather than take it down, she left it up, and doubled-down by adding a video (I refuse to link to it) to her wall. The title of the video is "Obama Admits Hes A Muslim" and has had over 7 Million views since it was posted in July 2009. My "friend" added the comment, "anyone know when this was?"
Once again, I responded:
When you watched that, didn't you even once wonder why there were so many cuts in between the statements? But if you really need the date(s) of these quotes, the first one was from April 6, 2009. Does that help? Perhaps you'd also like to know the entire quotes, not the racist edited versions:
"Although it is titled "Obama Admits He Is A Muslim," the president in fact has admitted no such thing. The video edits and twists his actual words, sometimes turning what were denials into false confessions. For example, it edits out the words "I’m a Christian" from one quote and "my Christian faith" from another. It shows him quoting from the Quran, but snips out his quotes from the Bible and the Talmud.
Although the video gives no citations and no dates, we have tracked down the full quotes from the various appearances. In the Analysis section that follows, we take the video section by section, comparing the edited quotes and graphics with the full reality of what Obama actually said.
We doubt many will take this nasty bit of misrepresentation seriously. Nevertheless, it provides an interesting case study of malicious editing."
FactCheck.org : Truth on the Cutting Room Floor
Not a word from my "friend" but somebody else added a comment:
Obama is not a Christian, regardless of what he says. Actions speak louder than words. Just like Pelosi is not Catholic, even though she claims it.
Wow! I was beginning to think that pointing out truth to these people was a waste of my time and energy. So I didn't respond yesterday. However, when I woke up this morning, the poem
If by Rudyard Kipling was going through my head. It was my mother's favorite poem, and it often comes to mind when I think about President Obama and all the hate that is thrown at him on a daily basis by the right-wing fanatics in this country. The opening line ("If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,") often comes to mind, but this morning it was "If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools," that was swirling in my head, and so I posted this response:
Really? How "Christian" were the motivations of the people who created this video? Looks more like knaves taking the words President Obama spoke and twisting them to make a trap for fools.
So far the response to that retort has been:
I am so disappointed in my "friend" that I almost unfriended her on Facebook. But, then I realized that if I did that, I couldn't continue to correct the lies she is helping to spread. Would I prefer not to fight these battles? Of course. Will I stop in order to keep the peace? Absolutely not.
I'm sharing this because, as I already mentioned, I was not aware of the portion of the PPACA that changed insurance for Congress. Perhaps many of you didn't know this either, and I have been able to save you time by finding the links to battle this lie. I hope others will also use this diary to share the battles they've been fighting and the links to information they have found to help correct the misinformation.
While misinformation about what is contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obama Cares) is an important battle to pursue, I want to take this opportunity to ask you to continue to fight Romney on the Bain Capital issue, because the meme is really starting to take hold.
One of the reasons it is working, is because the Priorities USA Action Super PAC continues to produce these awesome videos.
They need our help! If you can't afford to donate dollars, you can afford to donate a little time helping to spread the message via email and social networking. Here is the most recent video:
All of the Priorities USA Action videos are available at their YouTube Channel. Please, share them as much and as often as you can.
The one place that President Obama has a huge advantage over Romney is in social media (Study finds Obama 'blows Romney out of the water' on Facebook and New Data Show Obama Ahead in Social-Media Race). We're battling tons of cash from the Right, but there's nothing as powerful as word of mouth communication.
Right now on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube:
Facebook:
Barack Obama
27,189,941 likes · 1,339,148 talking about this
Mitt Romney
2,183,605 likes · 699,106 talking about this
Twitter
Barack Obama
17,123,815 Followers
Mitt Romney
610,425 Followers
YouTube
Barack Obama
201,799 subscribers
197,113,628 video views
Mitt Romney
9,888 subscribers
9,801,856 video views
Pinterest (And not to leave out the wives, I'm including Pinterest, where Michelle Obama started her Boards three months after Ann Romney)
Michelle Obama
33,120 Followers
Ann Romney
8,844 Followers
If you haven't already, be sure to LIKE, FOLLOW OR SUBSCRIBE!