Where Was This Guy When Bush Was Leading Us Into Iraq?
September 10th, 2009South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during President Obama’s health care speech to Congress on Wednesday. Wilson’s outburst came when Obama denied that his proposed health care legislation would provide free health coverage to illegal immigrants.
Obama immediately stopped his speech and glared at the heckler, as if Wilson were an insolent child. “That’s not true,” Obama coolly responded. CNN Fact check: Will reform plan cover illegal immigrants?
Seated behind Obama, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared shocked (though she often has that deer-in-the-headlights look) and Vice President Joe Biden looked down and shook his head (probably glad that for once he wasn’t the one sticking foot-in-mouth). Loud boos echoed through the chamber.
After the President’s speech, members of both parties condemned the heckling. Wilson issued a statement apologizing for his outburst. “This evening, I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the president’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” his statement 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.”
Wilson also called the White House to apologize. Obama gave him the brush off, but Wilson spoke with Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who accepted the apology on the president’s behalf. “We can disagree without being disagreeable,” Emanuel said to Wilson. “That was the point of the president’s speech.” That’s obviously a lesson that neither side of the aisle has ever learned.
So where the heckler was watchdog Wilson when George W. Bush was blindly leading our country into a trillion dollar war with Iraq? Obviously the Bush administration’s claim of “weapons of mass destruction in Iraq” turned out to be one of the biggest and most expensive political untruths in history. For the money we’ve spent on Iraq, we could have funded the gold-plated version of health care reform and covered every U.S. citizen. But now we are so strapped for cash that our Congress is likely once again to do nothing and sweep this massive problem under the rug.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:53 am
At last a politician with the guts to speak the truth Obama has been lying to the American people all along. Those who object to Joe Wilsons statement might want to re-read the first amendment
September 10th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Politicians lie, that’s what they do:
Obama - “Health care reform will be deficit neutral”
George W. Bush - “Weapons of mass destruction”
Bill Clinton - “I did not have sex with that woman”
George H.W. Bush - “Read my lips: no more taxes”
September 10th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
This made me laugh. I half expected him to cover his mouth and cough “bullsh**!”
Yes, it’s really a shame that the Republicans were asleep at the switch for 8 years while Bush drove us toward the cliff. We all know that Bush wasn’t really a Republican but some sortof hybrid monstrousity that combines the worst of both parties: fiscal irresponsibility combined with a hawkish, beligerent foreign policy.
But I’m glad to see my party finally wake up as Obama takes the wheel and attempts to plunge us over the cliff. Yes, Wilson was rude and childish, but he was saying what everyone in the audience was thinking.
We definitely need health care reform, but another massive expensive government beauracracy is not the answer.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
It is never proper to interrupt the President of the United States during a speech. It shows an utter lack of respect for the office and for the country. It doesn’t matter what party the President is a member of either.
Congratulations sir, you just embarassed yourself and cemented your place in the public mind. This was not a symbolic gesture against tyranny, so those of you who are likening this person to someone who stood up against the power, remember what happened to Brutus and Cassius?
Only a weak person who had no confidence in their ability to persuade and inform their state’s citizens would result to the type of childish and cowardly outburst that we saw last night.
September 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
It’s unfortunate what happened….but I’m tired of supporting illegal immigrants who feel that they have rights and entitlements just because they live here. He said what a lot of us were thinking.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
That’s why we call it TRASH! As defined in rickipedia he defines the word: TRASH!
September 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Uh, Maybe because Bush wasn’t lying? He truthfully conveyed all the information he had, and everyone knows it! Obama was standing up there telling blatant lies and calling everyone else a liar. He had it coming.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
The only reason that Joe Wilson is news today is because his Tourette’s-like outburst is so indicative of many conservatives who have blurted out nonsensical lies about health care reform having no idea how it makes them look. No fact checking organization agrees with Wilson’s point of view about free health care for illegal immigrants. All of the proposals expressly limit health care to American citizens and state very clearly that non-citizens will have to pay for their coverage. This is a classic case of a person who is so caught up in his own web of lies that he has lost his ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy. And that doesn’t even consider the issue that, on international television, this man shamed the entire Congress with his rude and juvenile remark. If the man can’t respect the office of President, then he has no respect at all for our political system and he should get out of government. What do our enemies think when they see that we’re so divided over an issue as simple as health care reform? Those of you who think his behavior was acceptable should stop acting like this is a rugby match in Wales. As the president said, “This is not a game.” People’s lives are at stake. Grow up, shut up, and listen. George Bush and other presidents have been booed, but none have been called a liar. This behavior harkens back to the days when Tom DeLay instructed Republicans not to stand or clap during any of President Clinton’s addresses before Congress, even if he said something they might agree on. Adolescents should not be in Congress.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Bush wasn’t a liar, he was incompetent.
It’s really a shame that Bush ruined the Republican party. I was a Republican for 30 years but finally had to leave when McCain tapped Palin as his running mate. That’s when I knew the Republicans had jumped the shark.
The first amendment protects your right to be a rude a-hole. Whether it’s Bush or Obama, the President deserves our respect, no matter how full of s*** they are. Wilson should have asked to deliver the minority rebuttal, rather than acting like a 10-year-old.
As an unemployed engineer living off the last months of a very expensive COBRA, I’m praying that our Congress can put together some type of health care reform that actually fixes the system but doesn’t bankrupt the country. We should all be able to get our insurance out of the same relatively affordable pool, but the term “public option” makes me nervous. Can’t we find a workable compromise here?
September 10th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I find it a laugh, how the real ‘white’ is coming out of some White peoples mouths. None of these woosies would have dared speak up against a White president. They all pretty much postitioned themselves in the SUNNYSIDE UP position and took a lot for team. I have never read so much crap as I have with you faceless people who would not stand up and speak your minds in front a room full of Black Thugs or Black professionals. So why hide behind the internet now? Just put on your hoods and cover your faces and ride around in the dark patting each other on the butts. Some Whites simply cannot stand that that Black man is the president, ITS KILLING YOU AND YOUR SCARED ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT. Wilson should be removed from his office for being disrepectful to the President and you other idiots….Target is having a white sale on white hoods and face covers.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I feel sorry for how they are treating Obama with such utter lack of disrespect. I don’t know how he can contain from responding with the same ignorance that they gave him. He is admirable and courageous and I wish him the best in pushing this healthcare reform it will go down in history as one of the greatest accomplishments a President has ever made in American history- of course the right wing nutz don’t want that honor bestowed on Obama. That’s why he shouted LIAR to convince the right of untruths which is all they have left. Pathetic, weak right wing racists.
September 10th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I don’t think it’s a race thing. Well, maybe for a small group of small minded people. But for most, this is a Republican vs. Democrat thing. The Republicans see this as an achilles heel to Obama’s populist appeal. It worked to derail Clinton, so it perhaps it could work again on Obama, and so far it’s been quite effective. Biggest/fastest presidential popularity drop in 60 years. Obama lost the crucial independent vote.
I think most people realize we need health care reform. But the massive spending has got to stop. Show some restraint please.
Part of it is our priorities. We’ve got to turn defense into a profit center. Why do we have to pay to police the world? Like the Joker said, if you’re good at something, you shouldn’t do it for free. Start charging for our military services. But I digress.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
It’s racist pure a simple, I’m sorry but it’s plain as butter. Anytime you can’t even address the nation’s school children in a positive pro education speech from the President of the United States is simply racist. Don’t think any schools would have banned Bush from speaking or even Bill Clinton. Wake up America, we’re not pulling the race card just because he’s black, it’s because it’s obvious people have a reall problem with Obama. He is doing for us what he campaigned for. I went to townhall meeting and listened to the idiots calling him a communist. When Bill Clinton was promoting the similar reform, you never once heard anyone call him a socialist or a marxist, now did you? Please. Racism is written all over this.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
My hero
September 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Rep. Wilson’s comment was inappropriate for the occasion. However, he voiced a sentiment felt by many when it comes to illegal aliens (not undocumented) taking advantage of tax supported health, education and welfare programs in the U.S..
If the President truly wishes to insure that “illegal aliens” are not covered by a tax-supported health care plan, then he should make sure a “verification process” is included (i.e. Heller amendment) to insure ONLY legal citizens and residents receive tax supported services. Verification of legal status and documentation is the only way we can keep 12-20 million illegals from “gaming the system” as the President called it.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Joe Wilson from South Carolina, is just another good old boy where in the morning these married men preach to you that there should be prayer in our schools and in the evening they are on their cell phones setting up a date with their other women on the side, hypocrisy has been bred in. I am not surprised that he felt compel to yell like he was at some Friday night game. He is a hater not a debater like most of his side of the isle.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
This guy lacked the decency to admit his transgression on his own. He had to be taken into the bosom of his ‘leadership’ to issue an apology. As far as the deceit and lies about the WMD and calling Bush out on it, that would have taken courage and fortitude, two of many qualities the good rep sorely lacks. Some people exault this man for this morally and cerebrally bankrupt outburst. But fools are known by the company they keep. To quote Confucius: man who scratch a–hole, shouldn’t bite fingernails.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Great Photo of Wilson with his mouth wide open, like he’s ready to insert foot, and he did. Along With Gohmert (grown man hanging a sign from around his neck), they are proof positive Republicans shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
some of the idiots; not All should be allowed to reproduce or be around Children
September 10th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
South Carolina has a long list of dignitaries that includes Lauren Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant contestant), Governor (and avid Appalachian hiker), Mark Sanford and now Joe “the hater not a debater” Wilson or the “screamer not the dreamer” as others have dubbed him. I did enjoy him cut and running through his apology, which only goes to show that he stands for nothing. So long Joey, you too will be seeing the unemployment lines.
September 14th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
[...] all, when we have Congressman yelling “You lie!” during a Presidential address to the joint session of Congress, why would we expect a dumb rapper to have better [...]
September 14th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
This was totally reprehensible behavior by Congressman Wilson. He should be ashamed and his constituents should be ashamed. This is not how proper leadership in our government should be carried out. It is probably acceptable that there is applause for agreement (although this is a very recent development in these televised speeches and I would prefer that there was no applause as was common for most of the history of this country), it is not appropriate to heckle.
Mr. Wilson won his most recent election by a fairly slim margin considering his geo-political base. I would suppose that this will be used to facilitate his replacement in 2010 and that would be a good thing. Only gentlemen (or gentlewomen) should be allowed in the chambers.
Mr. Wilson is partially correct. While there is no allowance for illegal aliens to receive insurance coverage, there is also no mechanism to prevent illegal aliens from receiving insurance coverage. In a typical Democratic move of late, when the minority Republican party tried to close this loophole, they lost on a straight party line vote. It is assumed that the responsible agencies would enforce a reasonable eligibility standard but there is no provision to force them to put in a certain eligibility test. Mr. Wilson has gone on record as saying that is what he is referring to when he did his disgraceful outburst.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Joe Wilson and Kanye West are two peas in a pod. Disrespectful individuals who should be voted out of office for the former and boycotted in the latter.
Didn’t their mother teach them proper manners?!?!?!
September 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
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