Congressman Joe Wilson Tells the Neal Asbury Show that Incident during President Obama Congressional Address was a “Town Hall Moment”

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Participating in his first full length radio interview since his famously shouted “You Lie” remark during President Obama’s address to Congress propelled him into the media spotlight, Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) appeared on the nationally syndicated Neal Asbury Show on WZAB-AM. Congressman Wilson attributed his dramatic vocal response to a “town hall moment,” a visceral reaction to what he inherently knew was Obama’s misrepresentation of the citizenship immigration policy. Congressman Wilson likened his response to the kind of spontaneous reaction he is seeing during full capacity town hall meetings he is holding in his congressional district.

“I respect President Obama, but we have the right to disagree, especially when he promotes an immigration policy related to health insurance that I knew was meaningless. The proof is that two days after the joint session, the citizen verification policy was overhauled,” said Congressman Wilson, who was elected to the United States Congress in 2001. He was grateful that President Obama and other Democratic leaders accepted his apologies, and was particularly grateful that the Republican Conference supported him, as did his staff and constituency.

Congressman Wilson is convinced that the Democrats don’t want the American people to understand the issues related to healthcare, and is angry that consumers are being treated as if “they are stupid – which they are not; they’re just looking for answers and explanations.”

“At least 95 percent of my constituents support what Republicans are trying to do. Our HR 3400 is a good bill, and a logical alternative to the proposed HR3200 being promoted by the Democrats, which is a Trojan Horse for a government option that would create bizarre rules and regulations likely to be controlled by a ‘Health Czar’ with the power to interpret these regulations. Our bill really reflects the power and potential of free enterprise,” said Congressman Wilson, who outlined some of the provisions of HR 3400: choice of affordable private options; consumers can keep their current coverage; tax incentives will be created for the insured; coverage will be allowed to cross state lines; and the bill will promote tort and medical liability reform.

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Nathan Deal: Don't Lie. Verify

On Tuesday, I was honored to stand up for Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the floor of the U.S. House.

Joe has apologized to the President for his remarks and the President has accepted. But the liberal, national Democrats are trying to silence anyone who stands in the way of their government-run healthcare program.

Joe Wilson is a good friend of mine. He has four sons who all wear the uniform of our Armed Forces, just as their father did.

I also have proudly worn the uniform of the U.S. Army. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe that I would have to stand up and oppose the Commander-in-Chief. But in this Administration, I have and I will.

For years, I've been leading the fight in Congress to stop illegal immigrants from getting taxpayer-funded health care benefits. In fact, I wrote the law requiring every state to verify identity and citizenship prior to enrolling anyone in Medicaid. No one has been more aggressive about ensuring precious health care funds go only to those here legally.

Just last month, I offered an amendment to the Democrat government-run health care scheme that would prevent illegal aliens from getting taxpayer funded Medicaid benefits by simply requiring verification that an individual is a U.S. Citizen, or in this country legally. Unfortunately, my amendment was defeated on a mostly party-line vote.

However, the buzz on Capitol Hill is that liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is forcing through her government-run health care scheme--without a provision to verify U.S. Citizenship or legal status--to the House floor for a vote as early as this afternoon. And you can help make sure this important taxpayer protection gets an up-or-down vote.

Nathan Deal

Deal for Governor

Call the Speaker's office to tell her to require citizen verification. Her number is 202-225-0100.

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Cash for Clunkers’ woes preview Obamacare

By Lynn Westmoreland

As Democratic members of Congress heard an earful over August from angry constituents worried about a government takeover of health care, hundreds of thousands of Americans were getting a sneak preview of what Obamacare might look like.

Washington, in its wisdom, instituted a seemingly simple Cash for Clunkers program, a plan so well known by Americans that it needs no further introduction.

The Cash for Clunkers window has closed now, of course, but its record of delays, paperwork, refusals, computer crashes and general red tape remained fresh in the memories of Americans as the president addressed the Congress this week to push his ideas for health care reform.

Without doubt, the president is the Democrats’ greatest messenger and he’s gifted in the art of persuasion. But the president doesn’t need to convince Americans that we have problems with our health care system. We could have all agreed on that long before he took up residence at the White House.

The president’s challenge is selling Americans on the dubious idea that the answer lies in a government takeover of the health care industry.

There are many legitimate reasons Americans from coast to coast flooded town hall meetings over August to voice their opposition. There are basic worries about bigger government, higher taxes and even larger federal deficits. Others wonder how an underfunded Medicare program could sustain $500 billion in cuts. But the main concern is intimately personal: Americans know a public option will undermine private insurance and lead to rationing, lower quality care and bureaucratic interference in the doctor-patient relationship.

It’s the latter concern where the Cash for Clunkers program could come into play.

At first, Congress appropriated $1 billion to provide a $4,500 incentive for Americans to trade in gas guzzlers for new, more fuel-efficient cars. This was supposed to rev up the ailing car dealers and auto manufacturers. (While almost 700,000 cars were bought through the program, this is a case of the government picking winners and losers. Cash for Clunkers merely pushed consumers to buy cars in lieu of other big purchases. Plus, dealers may face a dry spell after the taxpayer-subsided binge.)

The Department of Transportation this week will increase its work force for the program to 5,000, up from 3,000 last week, which was up from 1,100 public and private sector employees in mid-August. The bureaucracy keeps expanding.

What are these 5,000 new government workers doing? They’re processing the 27 million pages of paperwork generated by those nearly 700,000 car sales. A huge backlog formed waiting on the mere stamp of federal approval of the sale.

While many dealers appreciated the jump start on lagging sales, common complaints echoed nationwide: The government’s web site kept crashing, dealers couldn’t get their money from the Department of Transportation, their accountants were working around the clock to fill out the bounty of paperwork required on each car and 50 percent of applications were rejected. As of today (Sept. 10), only a little more than 40 percent of submissions have been paid.

Paperwork. Problems with payments to providers. Delays. Backups. New bureaucrats hired. The government picking winners and losers.

These things were bad enough when U.S. consumers were just looking for a good deal on a new car. What’s it going to be like when you need dialysis or a heart transplant?

President Obama’s effort to sell cars may give Americans extra pause as they watch him kick the tires on his health care plan.

Lynn Westmoreland (R-Grantville) represents Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District.
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