Did Obama Actually Lie?

The issue is whether illegal aliens are covered under ObamaCare. In his "debunking" speech last night Obama said No and declared that such claims are lies. So who is lying?

Lies can be either of commission or of omission. Lies of omission are actually more deceptive in that the statement can be technically correct while actually perpetrating a deception by omitting pertinent aspects of the issue.

Technically, Obama is correct it appears, in that illegal aliens are not covered with specific language enabling them to receive ObamaCare. The unstated fact, however, is that under ObamaCare it is illegal to ask a patient his nationality, thus giving illegal aliens a backdoor entrance into the ObamaCare system. This loophole is not an accident; the committee Democrats refused to eliminate this gaping hole.

The politics of lying by omission is a tradition. It is to be expected that all sorts of loopholes will be built into any piece of legislation that has the potential of benefiting third parties that in turn influence the political class. For example, illegal aliens will be a significant contributor to demographic gerrymandering of political districts - in favor of the Democrats - after the census next year. And for the same backdoor-loophole reason: the census taker is enjoined from ascertaining the nationality of the interviewee.

Lying? Yes. By deliberate omission.

Other claims by Obama were also lies by omission. The claim that the public option will not be taxpayer funded neglects the reports to the contrary by the OMB. The claim that taxpayers will not fund abortion neglects the fact that taxpayers will, in fact, have to fund the public option. The claim that Republicans have no alternative, while ignoring the Republican plan as if it were not there. All lies of omission.

The claim that eliminating inefficiencies will fund the entire cost is absurd in the extreme: if these inefficiencies exist and have not been fixed so far, how will they be fixed in the future without a huge investment in tracking them down, devising fixes, and forcing implementations - and that in hospitals and clinics nationwide? What sort of bureaucracy will be created to do this? Is this on top of the other 50+ bureaucracies created under ObamaCare? This lie seems to go well beyond omission, into a realm of supreme arrogance where the thinking must be that the public is really way to stupid to figure this out for themselves.

In fact, the Left seems to believe in its core that the masses are easily manipulated, and do not react without manipulation. This is why they actually think that tea parties are astro-turfed, just like their own manipulation of the unions. There is a condescension toward their lessors that is unmistakable.

In his speech to congress Obama might have intended to appear leader-like, by furrowing his brow, admonishing like a serious father, and fearmongering that "further deaths" will occur with inaction. He contributed nothing new to the debate, and repeated the lies of omission that have gushed out of the Left for months.

So apparently nothing has changed that is of any substance.

Addendum:
It appears possible that this speech will be remembered as Obama's "Liar" speech, thanks to the outburst of Joe Wilson. The schism between Left and the rest appears to be hardening into a rigid chasm. And Obama seems to have come across to many as a "grumpy old man".