Lies the Dems Tell Themselves

Townhall.com ^ | October 27, 2013 | Debra J. Saunders

[Kaslin]

During the Obama years, a potent mythology has taken root in Democratic circles. In this narrative, Democrats are victims, martyrs even, whereas Republicans are wily tricksters.

Last year, there was a hyped-up fable about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. President Barack Obama told "60 Minutes," "When I first came into office, the head of the Senate Republicans said, 'My No. 1 priority is making sure President Obama's a one-term president.'" Sen. Dianne Feinstein even told the San Francisco Chronicle's editorial board she heard McConnell speaking to that effect on the Senate's opening day.

The thing is that the quote in question first appeared nearly two years later -- in an October 2010 interview with the National Journal's Major Garrett.

The latest iteration of Democrats-on-the-cross works like this: Obamacare hasn't delivered the big savings promised by the president -- $2,500 annually for the average family -- because Democrats ditched the single-payer model to mollify Republicans. In the Los Angeles Times, Harvard professor Jane Mansbridge writes, "The Democratic Party reluctantly adopted RomneyCare, a.k.a. Obamacare, to get Republican approval." What's more, House Republicans "coerced the Democrats into adopting a Republican health insurance reform plan."

A reader emails me, "The Republicans who hate Obama would not permit the creation of a decent single payer plan which would allow private insurance carriers to participate on a competitive uniform benefit program." Another insists, "We wanted single payer! The GOP did not -- that was the compromise, and it was one of many from this president."

Really? The Affordable Care Act did not win a single Republican vote on the House or Senate floor. If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi abandoned single-payer to win GOP votes, they are the most incompetent negotiators in history.

Former Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, voted for the Obama stimulus package and a measure to end "don't ask, don't tell." In her book, "Fighting for Common Ground: How We Can Fix the Stalemate in Congress," Snowe recalls how 40 House Republicans voted with 249 Democrats to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, only to watch Democrats unveil a stimulus package with no GOP input a week later.

There was little spirit of bipartisanship when Pelosi crowed: "Yes, we wrote the bill. Yes, we won the election."

When Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., rolled out his draft legislation in 2009, he didn't have a single Republican at his side. When the Senate Finance Committee voted on two Democratic public-option proposals -- to allow government plans to compete with private insurers -- Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, denounced the public option as "a Trojan horse for a single-payer system." Let it be noted that centrist Democrats joined Republicans to defeat both measures.

In "The Audacity of Hope," Obama laid out a plan for universal coverage that allowed private carriers, such as Blue Cross and Aetna, to compete with new state pools. Still, he didn't stick his neck out to push for Democrats' public-option proposals.

In a 2003 speech, Obama, a second-term state senator, called himself "a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program." PolitiFact, however, couldn't find a similar blank-check statement. The fact-checking organization observes that as Obama became a more well-known national figure, he spoke "favorably of single-payer in concept, but always (added) qualifiers."

Snowe voted for the Democrats' health bill to get it out of committee, but it never won her support on the floor. You see, Snowe foresaw Obamacare's big problem. As she wrote (my italics), "not one single member in Congress -- Republican or Democrat -- could answer whether the newly created health insurance plans would be affordable , yet we hurtled headlong toward a final vote on a monumental bill affecting every American."

In a savvier Republicans-ruined-Obamacare argument, Washington Post wonk-blogger Ezra Klein contends that the Democratic part of Obamacare -- Medicaid, which is single-payer -- works. But: "The part of Obamacare that's troubled is the part Democrats lifted from Republican policymakers. It's the part that tries to integrate private insurance companies with government systems in order to create a universal insurance system that's subsidized by the state but run by private companies."

Get it? If Obamacare fails, it's because Obamacare is a Republican plan.

Now, I won't deny that two decades ago, some conservative think tank swell came up with the term "individual mandate" -- which allowed other wonks to try to pin the tail on the elephant. But if liberals have to fish for a 1989 Heritage Foundation policy paper that had no Republican support in 2008, 2009 or 2012 to establish Republican paternity for the Affordable Care Act, that tells you one thing: They think Obamacare won't work.

[Slyfox]

Outside of DC, in the hinterlands of America, the only person seen by both conservatives and liberals as responsible for Obamacare is Obama.

[FlingWingFlyer]

For the past 5 YEARS, the ‘RATS and their toadies in the state run “media” have been telling us that there are only 11 million illegal aliens living here that they want to give amnesty to. All deportations have been stopped by the Kenyan and the invasion has picked up since “immigration” reform was put on the front burner. Why has that 11 million number remained static? Somebody be lyin’ BIG TIME!

[Steve_Seattle]

I blame the media as much as the Democrats. The media cheered on the whole thing, didn’t ask the tough questions, let Obama get away with flagrant lying, and did not criticize Dems when they boasted that they hadn’t even read their own law.

[originalbuckeye]

Absolutely! And there are ads on our radio in AZ that have a Dem Illegal Immigrant Activist claiming that ‘Obama has deported 2 million illegals. More than any other President’. I say ‘yeah, right’. But it is an ad and everyone knows that they tell the TRUTH in ads, don’t they?

[Republican Wildcat]

The latest iteration of Democrats-on-the-cross works like this: Obamacare hasn't delivered the big savings promised by the president -- $2,500 annually for the average family -- because Democrats ditched the single-payer model to mollify Republicans. In the Los Angeles Times, Harvard professor Jane Mansbridge writes, "The Democratic Party reluctantly adopted RomneyCare, a.k.a. Obamacare, to get Republican approval." What's more, House Republicans "coerced the Democrats into adopting a Republican health insurance reform plan." A reader emails me, "The Republicans who hate Obama would not permit the creation of a decent single payer plan which would allow private insurance carriers to participate on a competitive uniform benefit program." Another insists, "We wanted single payer! The GOP did not -- that was the compromise, and it was one of many from this president."

Dishonesty and stupidity reign supreme in the land of liberalism - Republicans had no hand in creating Obamacare and the Democrats had a filibuster proof majority so they didn't need any GOP votes.

So the narrative the liberals are now going to peddle is that Obamacare is a huge mess is because it was a Republican proposal. Extraordinary dishonesty.

[null and void]

Note the meme: Obama care is broken because it isn’t Single Payer.

[polymuser]

Lies the Dems Tell Themselves

I am not racist.
I am not sexist.
I am not bigoted.
I am not socialist.
I am tolerant.
I am inclusive.
I know truth.
I defend and protect our Constitution.
I am Christian.
I an honest.
I am not a hypocrite.

[philetus]

“Obama has deported 2 million illegals”d returned them to home.

If he did he deported them to a Border Patrol station, had them step into Mexico and back, loaded them back on the bus an

[Kaslin]

But we know better, don’t we?

[sphinx]

A reader emails me, "The Republicans who hate Obama would not permit the creation of a decent single payer plan which would allow private insurance carriers to participate on a competitive uniform benefit program."

That reader has a curious understanding of single payer if he thinks it "allows" private carriers to participate ....

I imagine that reader is a typical dem who also thinks that single payer "allows" all participants the "opportunity" to purchase a one-size-fits-all insurance package.

[expat2]

They didn’t GET any Republican approval! If they dodged doing the single-payer approach, it was to mollify the Democrat friends, because not a single Republican voted for it.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

I understood it to be that he had them released from prison and sent back. Thus, raising this bogus number of illegals he deported.

[Dark Knight]

If they dodged doing the single-payer approach...<<

This is how the media is using language to hide moronic truths. Everyone is talking about the singe-payer approach, but it has a true name, monopoly.

Name one economist who believes monopoly is an efficient way to deliver goods and services and I will show you a government employee.

DK

I hope more people start to call single-payer by its true name monopoly, it will be easier to fight the silliness.

And thanks Ex pat2 for letting me use your post to say this again! I appreciate it.

[Vigilanteman]

So the narrative the liberals are now going to peddle is that Obamacare is a huge mess is because it was a Republican proposal. Extraordinary dishonesty.

Extraordinary dishonesty that their media lapdogs will help them peddle.