Apparently the qualifications for becoming an MSNBC anchor consist primarily of being able to ask Republicans the intellectual equivalent of “when did you stop beating your wife?” Which explains how Thomas Roberts got the gig.
While interviewing Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Roberts posed the following question:
"Congressman" wait. . . Aren’t we supposed to be politically correct? Shouldn’t it be “congresswoman”? He continued, "let me ask you, when it comes to Obamacare, do you hate Obamacare more than you love your country?"
Understandably Blackburn seemed at an initial loss with her answer to the audacious and ideological insult, which Roberts had so cleverly disguised as an inappropriate question. Then again, he does work for MSNBC. He may seriously believe that those are the only two honest options: Love America, or Hate Obamacare. C’mon, Tom: Why can’t it be both?
Maybe the Congresswoman should have responded with a loaded question of her own: “Do you love Obamacare more than you love America?” After all, the Democrat’s failure to negotiate with the GOP over a simple one year delay in the individual mandate (which mirrors the White House’s extrajudicial delay for big businesses) bears equal responsibility in bringing the nation to the cusp of the debt ceiling.
Maybe that’s it. Maybe Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and MSNBC love Obamacare soooooo much, they are willing to “risk default” in an effort to keep from having it altered in any minor way. Of course, that’s a hard argument to sell, given that the President has found it necessary to grant over 20 partial delays and exemptions for various aspects of the law to numerous special interest (read: “liberal”) groups. When the Executive branch declares it is going to use executive privilege to delay, strike, or exclude portions of the law, it seems like “love” for the law might be lacking. . . Even among its supporters.
Even Ezra Klein expressed some reservations about the law thus far. And, let’s not forget, the regulations for the law haven’t even been finalized. While they have over 11 million words jotted down in regulations (roughly 30 times larger than the law itself), they still have far more to go before “we the people” discover the enormity of Obamacare’s reach.
The exchanges are a disaster, the IRS is woefully underprepared to implement the law, and citizens have yet to be fully educated. . . How is a one year delay an outrageous demand? Especially when such a delay would trim the amount the Federal Government is expected to borrow over the next year. (Which, by the way, is what that whole “debt ceiling” thing is all about.)
Tom also seems ignorant of the fact that his America-loving Democrats voted against a recent GOP debt plan -- without even reading it. (But at least it wasn’t a 2,700 page law that would take control of 1/6 the US economy, or anything.) Maybe Marsha should have pointed out that when the GOP seemed ready to cave to Democrats, Harry Reid and Barack Obama suddenly “demanded” that sequestration cuts be lifted. In other words, when Republicans were primed to make a deal, Democrats demanded a ransom of their own.
Robert’s presumptuous argument that Republicans must hate Obamacare more than they love the nation is beyond the political pale. . . Even for MSNBC. (Which is saying a lot, Chris Hayes.) After all, it was this American-loving President (Ya know. . . The one that wanted to fundamentally transform the nation?) that refused to even sit down with Republicans before the shutdown. That seems to imply, according to Robert’s partisan logic, that the President preferred default over changes to the ineptly named “Affordable Care Act.”
So. . . Mr. Roberts. . . When did you begin loving Obamacare more than America? Was it before, or after, the Democrats promised to reject any CR that didn’t give them everything they demanded?
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