It was not surprising to see the Republican side of the joint session of Congress sit in their chairs like scolded school children wearing universally constipated expressions of disdain as President Barack Obama presented a powerful and effective concensus healthcare plan to unite the Democrats.
It was also not surprising to hear a member of the Republican side scream out "lie" during a presidential address, one of the most shameful acts ever witnessed, when Obama slapped down one GOP lie after another that he correctly stated were driven by politics rather than care for the American people.
Obama's healthcare concensus plan is plain and simple. And while the Republicans will not loosen their grips on their "bogus claims," as Obama put it, Obama outlined a vision that can help put to rest the most egregious lies even if Republicans, like GOP spokesman US Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), refuse to let up on the "scary stories."
Obama spelled out in English what Republicans will certainly seek to distort in their familiar language of demagoguery. In the first part, Obama said:
read moreIf Orrin Hatch were any slimier, he would have slid right out of those multiple chairs he occupied on multiple talk shows yesterday. The man positively oozed deceit, almost laughably so.
But it was also clear that what he was selling had been poll-tested and focus-grouped with the usual GOP rigor, which means the peddled product was confidently designed to scare the unholy bejesus out of the largest possible number of the oldest of lowest information voters.
Medicare's 38 trillion dollar unfunded liability was Hatch's shibboleth on CNN's "State of the Union," and again on ABC's "This Week," deployed like shamanistic garlic against any health-care reforms whose heretofore absence have helped to get Medicare in the situation he was deploring. Somehow the two were hazily linked, but not; it was reminiscent of the Bush administration's unremitting coupling of "Iraq" and "9/11."
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