Yesterday Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius
stated, vaguely, that the president would demand an explicit
ban on abortion funding before signing a health care reform bill.
Sebelius was responding to prodding from George Stephanopoulos on
ABC's "This Week." Stephanopoulos had asked, "Secretary Sebelius,
what's wrong with that, making it explicit in the bill that no
public funding should go toward abortions?"
Sebelius answered, "Well, I think that's what the president
intends to do. There's no intent to change the language that's in
the current Medicaid statute, which has been there for years and
provides insurance to millions of Americans."
Now, if, as President Obama asserted during his health care
speech, it was a "bogus claim" that the bills under consideration
in Congress provided for public funding of abortion, there was no
need for this statement from Sebelius. She simply could have
repeated him, saying that an explicit ban would be unnecessary
for a bill which so clearly directs no taxpayer money toward
coverage for abortions that anyone who claims it does is
"bearing
false witness."
I think that this fits into a pattern of the administration's
behavior. On health care reform the Obama administration has
either propagated statements that do not meet a minimum standard
of sincerity or else is hopelessly inarticulate and unclear.
The Joe Wilson "You lie" incident is another clear example. Obama
unequivocally stated as fact that illegal immigrants would not
receive public health insurance. Joe Wilson wasn't obviously
correct that this was a lie, but it is at
least a
statement that requires further distinction. The fact that
Obama failed to make the necessary distinctions to prevent
someone like Joe Wilson from accusing him of lying points to two
possibilities: 1) He, along with his speechwriters and
policymakers, is too inarticulate for the job. 2) He is "lying"
at least in the sense that his office requires a higher level of
disclosure and definition of terms in public statements.
There is one very favorable reading of Obama's various dubious
statements on immigration, abortion, and other health care
issues. That is that he is promising to veto any bill that
contains public funding for insurance for abortion or illegal
immigrants -- as the bills in consideration right now do . In
fact Sebelius's statement does sort of sound like a step in that
direction.
But without coming right out and saying it and conforming his
actions to his words, Obama and his administration are either
dishonest or inarticulate.
