White House Less Than Truthful on Healthcare Policy
While the White House has been less than truthful about its healthcare policy in general, the Obama administration is starting to tell some real whoppers about the Catholic Church.
During Monday’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed that the Catholic bishops “never supported health care reform to begin with…” To those of us familiar with the ObamaCare fight, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) made it clear from day one what their position was. They support universal health care that seeks to protect all life–something the President’s legislation did not do.
Bishop Stephen Blaire of the USCCB was quick to react. “Since 1919, the United States Catholic bishops have supported decent health care for all and government and private action to advance this essential goal.”
The administration’s lies snowballed from there, and the Sunday after President Obama’s false compromise on the contraception mandate, his Chief of Staff appeared on CNN and mislead people about Catholic Charities’ stance. The accommodation, said Jack Lew, has “gotten support of a wide range of organizations–from Catholic Charities… to Planned Parenthood.” Unfortunately, that falsehood has been repeated so often in recent days that Catholic Charities, not normally an organization that wants politics to distract from its core mission of helping the needy, posted a response on their website.
“In response to a great number of mischaracterizations in the media, Catholic Charities USA wants to make two things very clear: 1. We have not endorsed the accommodation to the HHS mandate that was announced by the administration last Friday. 2. We unequivocally share the goal of the U.S. Catholic bishops to uphold religious liberty and will continue to work with USCCB toward that goal.”
All of these deceptions, both open and behind the scenes, are compelling people–including Cardinal Timothy Dolan–to publicly question President Obama’s authenticity. “I want to take him at his word,” Dolan told the AP. “I do have to say it’s getting harder and harder.” So while some speculate that President Obama has a “Catholic problem,” the more serious concern should be that the President has a “truth problem.”
***Ed Randazzo, is a nationally syndicated author. He has been a conservative activist and consultant for over 30 years and is currently the Chief News Editor of Life and Liberty Media***
