Joe Biden's War On The Truth

Catholics push back against one of Smirkin' Joe Biden's many preposterous debate assertions:

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement, October 12. Full text follows:

Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:

"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact."

This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain "religious employers." That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to "Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital," or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served.

HHS has proposed an additional "accommodation" for religious organizations like these, which HHS itself describes as "non-exempt." That proposal does not even potentially relieve these organizations from the obligation "to pay for contraception" and "to be a vehicle to get contraception." They will have to serve as a vehicle, because they will still be forced to provide their employees with health coverage, and that coverage will still have to include sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients. They will have to pay for these things, because the premiums that the organizations (and their employees) are required to pay will still be applied, along with other funds, to cover the cost of these drugs and surgeries.

Glenn Kessler of the WaPo did pick up on this in the course of fact-checking seventeen claims made during the debate, so Biden's alternative reality is not going totally unremarked in Medialand. 

I don't imagine a string of columns by Dowd, Collins and Krugman denouncing Biden's lies will be hitting the press anytine soon, however.

Comments

[matt]

funny how all of the Democrat "supporters" of the Church seem to side with the nuns...

And how they have disappeared into the woodwork when it becomes a matter of First Amendment rights.

[narciso]

We're really in Lillian Hellman territory here, TM;

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/12/are-budget-cuts-to-blame-for-benghazi-attack-as-biden-suggested.html

The fact that he is quoting the discredited 2007 NIE, which was mostly based on their curveball, Amiri, who at best was the Heisenberg in this exercise, is another instance

[peter]

Four new threads? How will we hit 2000 comments?

[Cecil Turner]

Kessler goes to a lot of trouble to fact-check Ryan's assertions on Iran's nuclear program (concluding he "simplified" things) and finally admitting the sanctions are not working (except to cause "suffering," which isn't the goal) . . . but never gets around to debunking Biden's obvious stupidity about having nowhere to put the material once it's enriched to weapons grade. The closest he gets is saying Biden "confused things" . . . which is considerably more charitable than I'd put it.

[narciso]

They don't even read their own Pravda well enough, CT;

http://www.npr.org/2012/08/23/159902752/another-round-of-iranian-nuclear-talks-to-begin

[pagar]

IMO, it is the entire Obama regime war on truth. Can anyone name any Obama Regime official who has told the truth about anything?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Oh, Pagar, that's not really fair. Consider, for example, when Biden said "Yes we will raise taxes by a trillion dollars."

[Abadman]

The comments at the post fact check are encouraging, at least there is a discussion now about the mess. It seems there is beginning to be some push back against the true believers from a fed up muddle.

My college daughter even called Biden a psycho after the debate.

[pagar]

""Yes we will raise taxes by a trillion dollars."

IMO, there is no way the Democrats dare tell you how much they are going to raise taxes because it will be far more than a trillion.
--------------------------------
Abadman, I think your daughter has got it 100% correct. IMO, there are people behind bars in mental hospitals who would not act nearly as deranged as he acted during the debate.

[cathyf]

300 years ago, the Proprietorship of the Maryland Colony passed from the Catholic 2nd Lord Calvert to his Protestant son. Religious toleration of Catholics was severely curtailed. One of the new laws was that in order to serve in public office and in the state militia, a man had to take an oath that he did not believe in the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Another new law said that since Catholics refused to serve in the militia and in public office, their taxes were to be double.

After the Revolution (where my ancestors were allowed to enlist in the Continental Army without giving up their religion) the country created and ratified a constitution and bill of rights which prohibits religious tests for office and guarantees the free exercise of religion. As Justice Roberts has so clearly explained, Obamacare is a tax. The founding fathers had first-hand experience with imposing punitive taxes on citizens who refuse to act against their religious beliefs, and it's pretty clear that this is exactly what they thought that they were prohibiting in the constitution and bill of rights.

[narciso]

The irony, is Cathy, that on tactical grounds, Biden was opposed to this rule,

[TexasMom2012]

Biden is either ignorant of the facts and/or a dirty low down liar. There is no other way to look at his false statements. I am not Catholic but I am a Christian and I am following this closely via texts from USCCB the catholic bishops. This really angers me beyond belief. Not to mention that my family's income will be drastically curtailed by being forced from our current plan that lowers our deductible and super sizes our premiums. All at the same time taxmeghedon hits. Really worried.

[cathyf]

Well the real irony is that I'm afraid Biden really thinks that the mandate doesn't apply to Catholic institutions.

[PD]

Biden really thinks

Objection.

[Steve]

Powerful new Pro Life ad is out "Who is the abortion extremist"?

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2012/10/who-is-abortion-extremeist-women-speak.html

[Ralph L]

2nd Lord Calvert
Calvert was his surname, Earl of Baltimore, AKA Lord Baltimore, was his title. Jeopardy screwed that up a few years ago.

[Sara]

When I heard what Biden said, I turned to my son and said, "Ryan should respond: Are you calling Cardinal Dolan a liar?"

[Wanki Hadanki]

Joe's Hamburger Head will explode when The Dog Eater is defeated in November. He's been along for the ride since 1988 when he first began running for presidente.

He's always been a first class douche bag. He'll die a douche bag. He'll be given a douche bag funeral.

Il Douche and Il Duce... Joe completes so much of the world political picture. Now, to see the Dog Eater and Moochelini hung upside down in some public square.

Things can't go far enough sometimes.

[Pofarmer]

I'm gonna take a little different tack here. If you are operating a multimillion dollar hospital, that is not a church. You can call your church a church, outside operations are not a church. This is about the Catholic Church attempting to prove it can exert influence on the political system. IMHO, this is not something that we should desire, and, in fact, flies in the face of the separation of Church and State. The Bishops don't want to be separate, they want to be above the state, superior to it. Historically, that has not worked out well.