Contraception

Ryan: “Our church should not have to sue our federal government to maintain their religious liberties,” Ryan said.

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Biden: “Let me make it absolutely clear, no religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic Social Services, Georgetown Hospital, Mercy Hospital, any hospital, none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide.”

Neither got things right.

Contrary to Ryan’s claim, the Obama administration exempted churches and certain religious organizations. And it gave others a yearlong reprieve while they work out a solution — but they haven’t yet worked one out that the Catholic bishops, some religious colleges and universities, and the Catholic Health Association are satisfied with. The Catholic Health Association was a supporter of the Obama health law.

And Biden overstated the policy. Some of the obstacles arise because religious groups feel that their dollars are going toward contraception, even if they’re not paying for it directly. Private employers who oppose contraception are not exempt from the requirement that the employee health plan cover it.

More than 30 private employers and nonprofit organizations have sued, and those cases are still pending.

Libya attack

Ryan: “It took the president two weeks to acknowledge this was a terrorist attack.”

That’s not exactly right. The morning after the Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans, Obama said in the Rose Garden that ”No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”

After Obama’s initial statement, the White House declined to say it was terrorism, even as others said it must have been. And in a series of TV appearances five days after the attack, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said the initial assessment was that the assault was part of a “spontaneous” demonstration about an anti-Muslim video.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has confirmed that Rice’s statement was based on the intelligence community’s initial assessment that the attack emerged from a protest. They have since abandoned that view.

The administration’s public retreat from that view began eight days after the event with National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen telling a Senate committee it was a terrorist attack. On Sept. 20, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said it was “self-evidently” an act of terrorism. Obama didn’t use that word in response to a question on the point on Sept. 24, but Carney clarified two days later that was the president’s view.

Benghazi consulate security

Biden: “We weren’t told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security.”

Whether Biden was right comes down to what he meant by “we.” If he meant him, Obama and others at the White House, his statement may be correct. But there’s no doubt the State Department received requests for greater security

Documents show pleas for from three to five additional Diplomatic Security agents. And the top State Department security official for Libya, Eric Nordstrom, told a House panel Wednesday that he asked his superior verbally for a dozen more agents, which were not provided.However, Nordstrom said it was unlikely a handful more agents would have been able to repel an armed assault as organized and intense as the one in Benghazi on Sept. 11.