To Hot Air, Lying Doesn’t Matter
Hot Air is broadcasting a part of Sibelius’ recent speech and portraying it as the administration hating the first amendment (ironic, given hot air’s opposition to religious freedom).
The quote from Sibelius:
There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation
The quote as Hot Air sees it:
Sebelius: insurers who criticize ObamaCare may be locked out of the system
What’s the difference? Criticize vs lie. That one little word makes a lot of difference in the debate. It completely changes the context of everything, so it’s no surprise Hot Air decided to take liberties with the truth. Insurance companies have been hiking rates, and blaming the recent healthcare act. Odd, given that nearly none of the provisions of the healthcare act have gone into place.
The truth is, there is no proof that any kind of government involvement has caused an increase in the rates as of yet. Right now, increases are due to an increase cost of services. What Sibelius wants is for insurers to be honest about their rate hikes and not like to drum up political support. The insurance companies can criticize the law all they want, as long as they’re being honest.
So is this a breach of freedom of speech? No. Free speech is one thing; lying is another. And if you really want to get technical, the government isn’t preventing the insurance companies from lying. They can lie all they want, they just may not get funding if they keep it up. If they were to make it illegal to lie/criticize the healthcare bill – that would infringe free speech. As of yet, that doesn’t happen. But hot air can’t see it that way. They, like the insurance companies, need to lie to drum up bogus support.