On Sunday morning, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria re-aired an April 6 primetime special with the not-so-subtle title of The War on Government, which purported to be a history lesson on the conservative movement’s frustration with Republican politicians’ unwillingness or inability to shrink the government going back to President Dwight Eisenhower, which has culminated in DOGE’s blunt-force bureaucratic firings. The whole show operated on the assumption that conservatives, from FDR’s critics to DOGE, are wrong and out of touch, but the part about Tea Party opposition to President Barack Obama was the worst. Zakaria tried to claim Obamacare was actually conservative and had John Hopkins Professor Leah Wright Rigueur then surmise that the opposition to it was based in racism.
Zakaria huffed, “And yet, the core idea of Obamacare, requiring people to buy mostly private health insurance, had been championed by conservatives. It was proposed by Republicans as an alternative to Bill Clinton's healthcare plan in the 1990s, and actually implemented in Massachusetts by Republican Governor Mitt Romney in 2006. But, none of that mattered.”
It should be said that the people who led those efforts in the 90s insist that Zakaria’s interpretation of their work is wrong. Romney was also heavily criticized in the 2012 primary for that law.
Nevertheless, Zakaria continued, proving that even in 2009, long before Donald Trump descended down the escalator, PolitiFact was a problematic website, “Ferocious protests sprang up everywhere in 2009, warning of a government takeover of healthcare, which PolitiFact called the lie of the year.”
The fact that PolitiFact said that in 2010 aside, PolitiFact has this habit of treating Republican or conservative claims extremely literally. So, when Obamacare did not install a British-style nationalization system, it attacked. The idea that heavy mandates on individuals and employers, including religious ones, could constitute a takeover is something PolitiFact refuses to consider. It did this same trick when Democrats tried to pass their federal election bill dubbed the Freedom to Vote Act during the Biden administration. However, when Democrats compare Republicans to Jim Crow, PolitiFact insists the subject is simply too nuanced to break out the Truth-o-Meter as its cherry-picked experts insist political hyperbole should not be taken too literally and instead be viewed as an attention-getting tactic.
As for the Tea Party, Rigueur echoed Zakaria’s first claim, “The Tea Party is opposing that which is drawn from their own movement.”
Zakaria then suggested the Tea Party was just a tool of the Koch Brothers, “According to an authoritative study of the Tea Party, much of the movement was bankrolled by billionaire activists like the Koch brothers, libertarians, who had a massive influence on the message of the movement.”
So what? Would CNN ever run a documentary downplaying liberal causes simply because they were funded by George Soros? No, of course not, but that didn’t stop Rigueur from adding, “You also have a group of people who are deeply uneasy about the idea of having a black president.”
No matter how many times people like Zakaria may try to claim it, opposition to Obamacare was and is based in long-standing conservative principles, not racism towards the black president, but Zakaria does have history of specials that mangle GOP history.
Here is a transcript for the May 25 show:
CNN The War on Government: A Fareed Zakaria Special
5/25/2025
10:45 AM ET
FAREED ZAKARIA: And yet, the core idea of Obamacare, requiring people to buy mostly private health insurance, had been championed by conservatives. It was proposed by Republicans as an alternative to Bill Clinton's healthcare plan in the 1990s, and actually implemented in Massachusetts by Republican Governor Mitt Romney in 2006. But, none of that mattered.
RACHEL MADDOW: The wave of angry mobs.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: The protester who came to the town hall meeting today with a gun.
ZAKARIA: Ferocious protests sprang up everywhere in 2009, warning of a government takeover of healthcare, which PolitiFact called the lie of the year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoever senator or congressman vote for this bill, we will vote you out.
ZAKARIA: After that, no Republican in Congress –
CHUCK GRASSLEY: I would not vote for that.
ZAKARIA: -- dared to go near Obamacare.
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR: The Tea Party is opposing that which is drawn from their own movement.
ZAKARIA: According to an authoritative study of the Tea Party, much of the movement was bankrolled by billionaire activists like the Koch brothers, libertarians, who had a massive influence on the message of the movement.
RIGUEUR: You also have a group of people who are deeply uneasy about the idea of having a black president.
ZAKARIA: Despite Obamacare's powerful opposition and many moments when the bill looked dead –
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 219 to 212, no votes are Republicans.
BLITZER: All Democrats. No Republicans.
ZAKARIA: -- the Affordable Care Act became law.
