To paraphrase a punch line from Richard Pryor -- who are you going to believe, liberals defending Obamacare or your lying ears?
Lefties shilling for Obamacare have forgotten or choose to ignore one of Barack Obama's most blatant and repetitive lies -- namely, that under the so-called Affordable Care Act, health insurance premiums would drop on average by $2,500 annually per family.
More than a half decade since the law was enacted, after it has become obvious that no such widespread reduction has taken place, apologists for Obama's radical health care overhaul are playing dumb or disingenuous about a bold claim he made that arguably did more than anything else to get the law passed.
Two separate examples of this perverse tendency on the left were on display during Ed Schultz's daily podcast November 3 with guest Wendell Potter, a former health insurance exec turned industry whistleblower and Obamacare cheerleader.
Note the curious similarity in how Schultz and Potter both describe what "no one" ever claimed would happen after Obamacare took effect --
SCHULTZ: You know what amazes me is that the Republicans over the years since 2010 have not come up with a concise, easily understood, presentable and affordable health care plan. They've spent more time criticizing Obamacare, you know the story. The fact is, you got millions of Americans whose lives have been turned around. No one ever said that the prices weren't going to go up. But they haven't been the double-digit increases we saw in years before the Affordable Care Act, but they're still on the offensive.
In fact, John Barrasso, who is a doctor, a senator from Wyoming, he's the number four ranking member on the Senate leadership team, he says prices keep rising and service keeps fading. He says it should not surprise the administration that people are not signing up. He writes this in a Washington Times op-ed. He says that costs are soaring, cancellations are mounting, and choices are disappearing. Is that the truth? Let's go to Wendell Potter who's a former health insurance executive, author of "Deadly Spin" and "Obamacare: What's In It For Me?", regular contributor to Healthinsurance.org and The Huffington Post. ... Are costs soaring? Are cancellations mounting? And are choices disappearing? That's what's written.
POTTER: Yes, that's, that's certainly an exaggeration, it's overstatement. Uh, the fact is that, uh, premiums, you know, they're increasing like you said, no one promised that they would not increase but they're increasing very modestly in most places. In fact, some people will see rate decreases. In other states you'll see more increases than were expected because we're dealing with insurance companies here. Private insurance companies are always looking to make some money.
Schultz -- "No one ever said that the prices weren't going to go up."
Potter -- "No one promised that they would not increase."
"No one" -- aside from the blatant exception of the architect of Obamacare, Obama himself -- with liberals around the country then dutifully parroting the same claim ad nauseum, ad infinitum.
Both Schultz and Potter resort to the deliberately confusing double negative, a useful tool in obfuscation. Their claim might have a chance of passing muster, if only with other true believers, but only if the public record of the last several years could be erased.
In a characteristic display of public service, radio host Rush Limbaugh compiled an audio montage of bogus Obama claims about the health care law in October 2013 after an alarming number of people told him they did not remember Obama making them --
LIMBAUGH: Our montage covers the years 2007 through 2012, from when Obama was a senator, Democrat from Illinois, when Obama was president, talking about what the American people could expect from his health care plan --
OBAMA: If you have your plan and you like it and you like your doctor, then you don't have to change plans. The government is not going to make you change plans ... You're going to have a plan that lowers premiums by $2,500 ... I am actually not interested in just capping premiums, I want to lower premiums by $2,500 per family ... We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family ... You can keep your choice of doctor, keep your plan. The only thing we're going to do is lower costs, cut average family's premium by about $2,500 per year ... It's time to bring down the typical family premium by $2,500 and to bring down the costs ... The first thing I want to make clear is that if you are happy with the insurance plan, nobody will make you change it ... A system where we're going to work with your employers to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year ... We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family ... And we will lower premiums for the typical family by $2,500 a year ... And if you already have health care, then we're going to work to lower your premiums by up to $2,500 per family ... We're going to work with your employer to lower premiums by up to $2,500 per family per year ... If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you.
LIMBAUGH: Not one of those was repeated, 2007 to 2012. Actually he said it even a lot during this year as well, but we had to have a cut off point.
Hmm, so that's what no one sounds like ...
For his whopper of a claim that "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it," Obama was tagged with PolitiFact's Lie Of the Year Award in 2013.
I'll give Schultz and Potter the benefit of a doubt that they aren't lying. But if that's the case, they clearly weren't paying attention when it mattered.
