To Steve Benen, Obamacare is a high-quality dress shirt that Republicans treat like a greasy rag. Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, wrote in a Friday post on the TRMS blog that even though “every GOP prediction about the Affordable Care Act has been discredited,” conservatives keep trying to use it to tarnish other measures they oppose, including the Iran nuclear deal.
“If there is a compelling parallel between ‘Obamacare’ and the international nuclear agreement,” contended Benen, “it’s this: Republicans abandoned rational thought in their contempt for the idea, and despite pleas for an alternative solution to an important pressing problem, they offered nothing but slogans and cheap talking points.”
From Benen’s post (bolding added):
The lines between satire and conservative political commentary can admittedly seem blurry at times, but this National Review piece yesterday is, as best as I can tell, intended to be serious…
Much like Obamacare, ObamaNuke is a high-priority, highly convoluted, highly opaque mess that is being ramrodded through Congress by dodgy means, even as the American people overwhelmingly reject what is being barge poled down their throats.
“ObamaNuke,” the National Review headline insists, “really is an Atomic Obamacare”…
…[I]n “Being John Malkovich”…John Malkovich crawls into the head of John Malkovich (long story). Suddenly, he’s stuck in a nightmare in which Malkovich is everywhere and everything.
It’s striking the degree to which Republicans appear to be experiencing a similar nightmare, only instead of seeing an acclaimed actor everywhere, they see the Affordable Care Act, lurking in every corner, representing everything they abhor in all contexts.
Shortly after Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan to make college tuition more affordable, for example, Douglas Holtz-Eakin said, “It will be Obamacare for higher education”…
…[Republicans say] Common Core standards are “Obamacare for K-12 education.” Net neutrality is “Obamacare for the Internet.” Dodd/Frank financial-regulatory safeguards are “Obamacare for banks.” Efforts to reduce carbon pollution are “Obamacare for energy markets”…
No modern equivalence of this hysterical preoccupation comes to mind. It’s not as if Democrats ran around Washington in 2005 saying, “Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security is the Iraq war for entitlements.”
Besides, the underlying complaint is baseless since the Affordable Care Act is working quite well, exceeding even most optimists’ expectations.
If there is a compelling parallel between “Obamacare” and the international nuclear agreement it’s this: Republicans abandoned rational thought in their contempt for the idea, and despite pleas for an alternative solution to an important pressing problem, they offered nothing but slogans and cheap talking points.
Five years later, every GOP prediction about the Affordable Care Act has been discredited and proven false. Here’s hoping, five years from now, opponents of the Iran deal appear equally foolish about the efficacy of the national security policy.
