The initial, deliberate lie was Obama's categorical, "if you like your plan, you can keep it" promise. The lie about the lie, per Katie, is Obama's shameless revisionism:
"What we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed."
Nope. We know what you said. It's on tape, about a thousand different times. National Journal's Ron Fournier has seen about enough:
Watch the video of Obama reinventing history with the "what-we-said-was" construction. Notice how he is looking at notes. Remarkably, this was not an off-the-cuff remark; it was written, reviewed and approved by senior White House officials, then recited by the president. An orchestrated deceit. Why didn't Obama add their caveats during his re-election campaign? His aides debated it. Some argued that the president had to shoot straight with the public. Others feared that he public wouldn't understand the nuance and GOP rival Mitt Romney would use it to his advantage. The cynics won. The truth was buried. And the man who promised to run the most transparent administration in history participated in a lie...This president is toying with a fragile commodity: his credibility. Once Americans stop believing in Obama, they will stop listening to him. They won't trust government to manage health care. And they will wonder what happened to reform-minded leader who promised never to lie to them.
Many Americans never believed that Obama had much of that "fragile commodity" to begin with. This episode is just one of the more galling piece of evidence that prove the point. Obama's approval rating, incidentally, has dipped into the 30s, according to Gallup. This president will never have to face voters again. That ship has sailed, but his reputation isn't an irrelevancy. Democrats from purple and red states facing tough re-elections will be tied to him by their GOP opponents next year. Expect to see a lot more ads like this in the coming months (watch all the way through to the end):
Which is why poseurs like Mary Landrieu are clamoring to revisit a bill every single Senate Democrat voted to kill in 2010, when it could have made a difference:
Manchin also joined Mary Landrieu on bill forbidding insurers from canceling ind policies due to ObamaCare regs. They're getting nervous
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) November 5, 2013
The lie is ongoing. Here's a screenshot of what's still live on the official White House website:
Finally, Jay Carney keeps repeating the claim that only "five percent" of the US population is affected by the president's healthcare deceit. First of all, five percent equals millions of human beings, and that number doesn't include people who may be see their coverage dropped over the next few years. Secondly, tens of millions of Americans are being impacted by another broken promise:
Jay Carney keeps repeating this baseless claim that people with employer-sponsored coverage are unaffected by #Obamacare. Costs increase.
— Avik Roy (@avik) November 5, 2013
"B-b-but, costs were increasing before Obamacare!" its defenders protest. True. And we were promised that if we spent $940 billion (or actually $1.76 trillion) on a sweeping new program, costs would go down for all individuals and families -- as well as for the government. False, all around. Speaking of which, I'll leave you with Greg's clip of Debbie Wasserman Schultz lying her ass off about Obamacare today:
Allahpundit's summary of her spinny spiel is quite amusing. Healthcare.gov "arguably" needs improvements, Debbie? Parting thought: What does "myzled" mean? (See 1:10). Seriously. Is she trying to say "misled"? Is she reading from a script?