Bishop Blaire Refutes White House Press Secretary’s Claim That Bishops Never Supported Health Care Reform
February 14, 2012
WASHINGTON—The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said in a press briefing at the White House on February 13, “...I would simply note with regard to the bishops that they never supported health care reform to begin with...”
“This is not the case,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
“Since 1919, the United States Catholic bishops have supported decent health care for all and government and private action to advance this essential goal,” Bishop Blaire said.“Long before the current battles, the Catholic Church was persistently and consistently advocating for this overdue national priority.”
In the recent health care debate the USCCB called universal and affordable health care “an urgent national priority and moral imperative.” The USCCB’s criteria insisted reform should be truly universal, protect human life and conscience and not discriminate against immigrants. “The USCCB opposed the final legislation because it failed this test, a judgment sadly but clearly borne out by the failure of the law and the recent regulation to protect conscience and religious liberty,” explained Bishop Blaire.
“I hope those who made or repeated this false statement will correct the record and report the bishops’ long and consistent record of support for health care which protects the life, dignity and consciences of all, especially the poor and vulnerable.”
4 comments:
Yes, Carney lied, but even had it been true, how would that have been relevant to the issue at hand?
The politicians take advantage of the ignorance of the general population. In particular, few have any knowledge of economics, and even if they had a class in the subject, it may have been a disordered and polemicized presentation, as was the case with my daughter. And worse, they almost certainly have had no training in logic; applying reason is therefore a challenge.
Sometimes I can't tell if the Bishops are trying to be Charitable to a fault, or are naive to the nature of the people they are dealing with. I think, based on AB Dolan's recent statements, it has been both. Even so, I think they could be a little more savvy dealing with people to prevent injury to the Church.
This recent statement strikes me as sort whining. It seems to be along the lines of, "I've been Liberal, too!"
When I was a child there were several legends, myths, and fairy tales that had a naive prince engaging a deceitful person/spirit and making a request. The protagonist was given something injurious through an intentional twisting of the words of the request. The Bishops should revisit some of those old stories.
rcg
Lord how I wish it were true (that the USCCB had not supported Obamacare), but alas anyone with 30 seconds time and an internet connection can refute that notion. I don't think they would support it today becasue they realize what a pig in the poke they supported, but that's another story.
I will take some pleasure in pointing out that the USCCB's statement clearly states that the Church's position has always been in support of access to decent and affordable Healthcare. Please note that the USCCB position is NOT in favor of Universal, State run Healthcare, or Socialized Medicine, and that those who think that is the Church's position are confused. The Church is squarely against Socialism.
Note, too, that further to the comment from rcg, the single greatest contributor to health care costs in the last 50 years has been the Federal government. Increased regulations and requirements = increased costs. Similarly, lack of tort reform = increased costs. And who among us can doubt that tort reform is avoided because the legislators are almost all lawyers?
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