true:<\/em> \u201cIf you like your plan, you will be able to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\nBut what about those people whose old plans no longer exist in that same form because of the health reform law? Well, that\u2019s only true for those old plans that were basically screwing over customers. The new law doesn\u2019t let insurers do that anymore.<\/p>\n
So, no, if your old plan was screwing you over, you won\u2019t be able to keep it.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the \u201cGotcha\u201d moment then: Ah, but what about people who liked<\/em> getting screwed over by their old plans? They liked<\/em> being ripped off, but they\u2019re no longer allowed to be ripped off in quite that same way \u2014 therefore Obama was lying when he said \u201cIf you like<\/em> your plan, you will be able to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\nThis is just weird.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you like your diet, you will be able to keep it.\u201d But we\u2019re no longer going to allow people to sell you a plate filled with broken glass and feces and call it lunch.<\/p>\n
But I liked<\/em> my broken glass and feces! If you won\u2019t let me keep paying top-dollar for that, then you\u2019re a liar!<\/em><\/p>\nSeriously, I\u2019ve come to expect this level of journamalism from Politico<\/em> and cable news pundits, but it\u2019s disappointing to see The Daily Show<\/em> parroting such strangeness.<\/p>\nIn what sense was Obama\u2019s statement \u2014 \u201cif you like your plan, you will be able to keep it\u201d \u2014 \u201cdishonest\u201d? I suppose the criticism is that the president failed to account for the possibility that some customers would be eager to redefine \u201cinsurance plan\u201d in a way that allows it to refer to an expensive scheme that denies them insurance. Such redefinition is certainly dishonest, but the dishonesty is not on Obama\u2019s side of the ledger.<\/p>\n
I suppose one could argue that Obama ought to have anticipated this response. He ought to have realized by now that polarized partisan attitudes have pervaded all of our lives and culture, and that a big chunk of the public seems to have embraced such a knee-jerk antipathy to anything he says that they\u2019re no longer concerned about reality or the concrete meaning of words. In such a context, Obama probably should have foreseen that some people would insist that they like<\/em> eating feces and broken glass, and that they\u2019d prefer<\/em> to keep eating that instead of paying less for a more palatable meal of actual food.<\/p>\nObama, in other words, ought to have realized that others would lie and that still others would eagerly swallow those lies. But his failure to insulate his otherwise accurate statement from the challenge of those lies does not constitute a lie on his part.<\/p>\n
Shit and shards are not a meal. And no matter what some people are happy to pretend in an attempt to score political points, no one<\/em> really \u201clikes\u201d eating it.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here’s the “Gotcha” moment then: Ah, but what about people who liked getting screwed over by their old plans? They liked being ripped off, but they’re no longer allowed to be ripped off in quite that same way — therefore Obama was lying when he said “If you like your plan, you will be able to keep it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[98,24],"class_list":["post-18842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare","tag-health-care","tag-journalism"],"yoast_head":"\n
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They liked being ripped off, but they're no longer allowed to be ripped off in quite that same way -- therefore Obama was lying when he said "If you like your plan, you will be able to keep it."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/11\/06\/perversely-insisting-you-like-the-unlikable-doesnt-make-someone-else-a-liar\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perversely insisting you like the unlikable doesn't make someone else a liar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's the "Gotcha" moment then: Ah, but what about people who liked getting screwed over by their old plans? 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<\/a>John Stewart just isn\u2019t making much sense here<\/a>. \u201cThe president has been somewhat dishonest about the promise of his health care program,\u201d Stewart says, playing a long string of clips of Obama saying \u201cIf you like your plan, you will be able to keep it\u201d as though this were a big \u201cGotcha\u201d moment.<\/p>\n