It is a crime to lie to the FBI, just ask Scooter Libby. It is a crime to lie to the SEC, just ask Bernie Madoff. It's a crime to lie on your tax forms. It's a crime to lie in court. But if you want to lie about your military service and pretend to be a decorated veteran and defraud the public, some people think that's just free speech.
Which people? Three, and only three members of Congress, among them Thomas Massie.
The Stolen Valor Act had been part of the law of the land for years until it was struck down by the courts. But this year Congress took up an effort to tighten up the language and make it more like a fraud statute. The vote in Congress in favor of the act was 390-3.
People who falsely claim they have received a military medal in order to obtain money or government benefits could face up to a year in jail under legislation that easily passed the House on Monday.
The Stolen Valor Act, sponsored by Nevada Republican Joe Heck, is a second attempt by the House to revive a law on fraudulent claims to medals that was struck down by the Supreme Court in June last year. The legislation is identical to a measure that passed the House overwhelmingly last September but saw no Senate action before the last session of Congress ended. The vote Monday was 390-3.
I can almost anticipate a comment asking who the "three liberals that voted against it" were. Well, it wasn't liberals, it was three Republican, libertarian-leaning Representatives: Broun (GA), Amash (MI) and Massie (KY). [Burn Pit]
Now you might wonder why a guy supposedly representative of the mindset of the people of Northern Kentucky and the Fourth District would vote AGAINST the Stolen Valor Act. Well, obviously he is a total Ron Paul groupie as this report of Ron Paul's vote against the act last year demonstrates. But read the justification for Ron's mindset in the last sentence of this quote.
Ron Paul will no doubt receive criticism for his vote Thursday against the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a federal crime to lie about having served in the U.S. military in order to "obtain something of value." A previous version enacted into law was struck down by the Supreme Court in June, after justices deemed the law too vague and all-encompassing. So in response, Congress has recalibrated the legislation to address the court's concerns, and the new Stolen Valor Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 410 to 3. Voting with Paul against the bill were Democrat George Miller of California and Republican Justin Amash of Michigan.
It is truly astounding that a vast majority of our federal lawmakers believe it's the province of the federal government to act as a regulator of truth and lies. However, no provision in the Constitution gives Congress the power to punish the utterance of lies or have oversight authority over the speech of private citizens in general. [Policymic]
Did you catch that? The twisted reasoning is that Congress has no power to punish lies? Tell that to the people mentioned in the first paragraph of this posting.
It's more than just another example of his inability to think on his own without taking direction from Ron Paul, it's a total disconnect from the mindset of the people of this district that prompts Massie to vote in favor of lying about your military service in order to obtain government benefits by fraud!
As one progressive blogger in Kentucky put it:
And his vote makes perfect sense; in eight months on the job, he has yet to cast a single vote that reflects the needs of his actual constituents in Kentucky's Fourth District.
But then, the residents of Northern Kentucky aren't his real constituents: the teenaged Texas teabagger billionaire who bought him the election is Massie's only real constituent.
Don't blame me - I voted for Adkins.
Posted by: Bill Adkins | June 27, 2013 at 12:31 PM