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Among the many rules I grew up with, two stand out. The first was never call someone a liar, which was considered the worst possible character indictment one could issue. The accuser had best be prepared to fight or be fleet of foot.
The other was a dictum so oft-repeated that it is permanently tattooed on my brain: If youll lie by omission, youll lie by commission.
This first rule sheds light on why it was so shocking when in 2009 Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, You lie! as President Obama was addressing Congress. Beyond an insult to decorum, it was widely viewed as another tipping point in our descent into incivility.
Now that the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, has been released upon the land sort of Wilson is being regaled in Republican quarters as the voice of Cassandra, though his outburst was prompted by Obamas saying the ACA wouldnt insure illegal immigrants.
The big lie, as the presidents broken Obamacare promise is now known, was that everyone could keep his or her doctor and insurance policy under the ACA. No one, Americans were justified in inferring, would be remotely inconvenienced by Obamacare. Instead, the reality is well-known: Millions are expected to lose their insurance policies, while others will see their premiums skyrocket.
It is still jarring to my adult psyche to impugn another, especially the president of the United States, as a liar, so I wont. But it is not possible to pretend that the American people have been told the truth. Nor is it possible to pretend that Barack Obama has been completely honest.
The question is, how much dishonesty from a president is tolerable? How can a dishonest president lead a nation? The truth is, if the president were not immune from such things, the American people could file a class-action suit on grounds they were sold a product under false pretenses. In the private sector, we call that fraud.
Now the White House tells us that Obama always meant you could keep the insurance policy you like if it met the standards of the ACA. Apparently, plenty of people involved with the law, including the House minority whip, Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who recently said so, have known for at least three years that between 40 percent and 67 percent of those in the individual market would lose their policies.
Press secretary Jay Carney explained: What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act that create minimum standards of coverage, minimum services that every insurance plan has to provide. ... So its true that there are existing health care plans on the individual market that dont meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.
Well, as the guardian of the Emerald City gates said to Dorothy: Bust my buttons! Why didnt you say that in the first place?! We know why. This sin of omission wasnt an accidental oversight. It was a feint because many Americans wouldnt have followed the wizard had they known the truth.
Theres a reason the ACA implemented the popular aspects of the bill first allowing parents to cover their children until age 26 and eliminating their childrens pre-existing condition barrier to insurance coverage before the 2012 election and postponed the nasty news until enough people were hooked on Obamacares sugar. And, of course, after the president was re-elected. This is what Republicans were referring to when they wanted to impede the law before the rollout because people might like it. Sugar is addictive after all.
To sum up, the American people were duped; the administration did not misspeak, as The New York Times editorialized. The administration knowingly misled with a false promise and a deliberate omission. Worse, they did it for your own good because you might be confused by the truth. Call it what you will.
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
No.
Those numbers are extreme, but generic congressional numbers are usually bad. It's very common for people to say they're frustrated with Congress in general but they still like their own representatives.
Nice deflection though.
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
Sweetie,
I hate to break this to you...but Dimocrats control half of Congress. I mean, if you hate Harry Reid...just say so.
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
No.
Those numbers are extreme, but generic congressional numbers are usually bad. It's very common for people to say they're frustrated with Congress in general but they still like their own representatives.
Nice deflection though.
Nice explanation but this may be wishful thinking on your part. We will get a clearer picture in a couple of months on how things are really going.
I do have a theory that everybody is about tired of you all shitting all over Obama for every little thing that goes wrong. They've tried to defund and get rid of Obamacare like 50 times already. Stfu about it, your party has enough problems of their own. They need to get to work.
No.
Those numbers are extreme, but generic congressional numbers are usually bad. It's very common for people to say they're frustrated with Congress in general but they still like their own representatives.
Nice deflection though.
Nice explanation but this may be wishful thinking on your part. We will get a clearer picture in a couple of months on how things are really going.
I do have a theory that everybody is about tired of you all shitting all over Obama for every little thing that goes wrong. They've tried to defund and get rid of Obamacare like 50 times already. Stfu about it, your party has enough problems of their own. They need to get to work.
"Every little thing"? LOL
My representatives are doing what I sent them to Washington to do, which is to stop the agenda of someone who pushes legislation which is so awful that he has to lie about it "for our own good".
Obama can't even rely on his likability numbers anymore as a buffer. Even those are underwater. People don't like being lied to, and now that the media is finding it hard to shill for him anymore, reason is being restored to America. Three things are likely to keep the media honest this time around -- Obama's lies are so big, it makes a good story, and many members of the media are still smarting from the Obama admin's documented repression of the press.
Bahaha ... "every little thing"
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 42.7
Disapprove 52.2
Spread -9.5
Nice explanation but this may be wishful thinking on your part. We will get a clearer picture in a couple of months on how things are really going.
I do have a theory that everybody is about tired of you all shitting all over Obama for every little thing that goes wrong. They've tried to defund and get rid of Obamacare like 50 times already. Stfu about it, your party has enough problems of their own. They need to get to work.
"Every little thing"? LOL
My representatives are doing what I sent them to Washington to do, which is to stop the agenda of someone who pushes legislation which is so awful that he has to lie about it "for our own good".
Obama can't even rely on his likability numbers anymore as a buffer. Even those are underwater. People don't like being lied to, and now that the media is finding it hard to shill for him anymore, reason is being restored to America. Three things are likely to keep the media honest this time around -- Obama's lies are so big, it makes a good story, and many members of the media are still smarting from the Obama admin's documented repression of the press.
Bahaha ... "every little thing"
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 42.7
Disapprove 52.2
Spread -9.5
A day doesn't go by when they and you aren't whining about something Obama says or Obamacare. You sit here on your butt whining about Obama. Why not say something positive about your party?
Oh .. Yeah.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
"Every little thing"? LOL
My representatives are doing what I sent them to Washington to do, which is to stop the agenda of someone who pushes legislation which is so awful that he has to lie about it "for our own good".
Obama can't even rely on his likability numbers anymore as a buffer. Even those are underwater. People don't like being lied to, and now that the media is finding it hard to shill for him anymore, reason is being restored to America. Three things are likely to keep the media honest this time around -- Obama's lies are so big, it makes a good story, and many members of the media are still smarting from the Obama admin's documented repression of the press.
Bahaha ... "every little thing"
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 42.7
Disapprove 52.2
Spread -9.5
A day doesn't go by when they and you aren't whining about something Obama says or Obamacare. You sit here on your butt whining about Obama. Why not say something positive about your party?
Oh .. Yeah.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
I did say something positive about my party. Sorry about your reading comprehension.
I said that my representatives are doing what I sent them to Washington to do.
I sent them thank you notes, I am so proud of them.
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 42.7
Disapprove 52.2
Spread -9.5
A day doesn't go by when they and you aren't whining about something Obama says or Obamacare. You sit here on your butt whining about Obama. Why not say something positive about your party?
Oh .. Yeah.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
I did say something positive about my party. Sorry about your reading comprehension.
I said that my representatives are doing what I sent them to Washington to do.
I sent them thank you notes, I am so proud of them.
President Obama Job Approval
RCP Average
Approve 42.7
Disapprove 52.2
Spread -9.5
That's the most positive thing you can say about them? They're in trouble in the Fall by golly.
Well I just wanted to stop by and mess with your little circle jerk. You have fun now.
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
I would have went with some harsher wording, but she hit's the mark pretty good.
Administration misled us on health care law
Among the many rules I grew up with, two stand out. The first was never call someone a liar, which was considered the worst possible character indictment one could issue. The accuser had best be prepared to fight or be fleet of foot.
The other was a dictum so oft-repeated that it is permanently tattooed on my brain: If youll lie by omission, youll lie by commission.
This first rule sheds light on why it was so shocking when in 2009 Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted, You lie! as President Obama was addressing Congress. Beyond an insult to decorum, it was widely viewed as another tipping point in our descent into incivility.
Now that the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, has been released upon the land sort of Wilson is being regaled in Republican quarters as the voice of Cassandra, though his outburst was prompted by Obamas saying the ACA wouldnt insure illegal immigrants.
The big lie, as the presidents broken Obamacare promise is now known, was that everyone could keep his or her doctor and insurance policy under the ACA. No one, Americans were justified in inferring, would be remotely inconvenienced by Obamacare. Instead, the reality is well-known: Millions are expected to lose their insurance policies, while others will see their premiums skyrocket.
It is still jarring to my adult psyche to impugn another, especially the president of the United States, as a liar, so I wont. But it is not possible to pretend that the American people have been told the truth. Nor is it possible to pretend that Barack Obama has been completely honest.
The question is, how much dishonesty from a president is tolerable? How can a dishonest president lead a nation? The truth is, if the president were not immune from such things, the American people could file a class-action suit on grounds they were sold a product under false pretenses. In the private sector, we call that fraud.
Now the White House tells us that Obama always meant you could keep the insurance policy you like if it met the standards of the ACA. Apparently, plenty of people involved with the law, including the House minority whip, Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who recently said so, have known for at least three years that between 40 percent and 67 percent of those in the individual market would lose their policies.
Press secretary Jay Carney explained: What the president said and what everybody said all along is that there are going to be changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act that create minimum standards of coverage, minimum services that every insurance plan has to provide. ... So its true that there are existing health care plans on the individual market that dont meet those minimum standards and therefore do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act.
Well, as the guardian of the Emerald City gates said to Dorothy: Bust my buttons! Why didnt you say that in the first place?! We know why. This sin of omission wasnt an accidental oversight. It was a feint because many Americans wouldnt have followed the wizard had they known the truth.
Theres a reason the ACA implemented the popular aspects of the bill first allowing parents to cover their children until age 26 and eliminating their childrens pre-existing condition barrier to insurance coverage before the 2012 election and postponed the nasty news until enough people were hooked on Obamacares sugar. And, of course, after the president was re-elected. This is what Republicans were referring to when they wanted to impede the law before the rollout because people might like it. Sugar is addictive after all.
Administration misled us on health care law | Opinion | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon
Wow, congressional approval post shutdown:
RCP Average
10/3 - 11/4 8.8 Approve, 84.4 Disapprove, -75.6 Spread.
RealClearPolitics - Election Other - Congressional Job Approval
Wow, the House is in big trouble come next Fall.
Why are you completely changing the thread topic ?
Hmmm, lies. Other lies: ACA kills jobs; guts medicare; creates death panels; leads to govt takeover; worse than slavery.
Hyperpartisanship is alive in both parties.
