She really has nobody to blame but herself for this, you know.
Nancy Pelosi's face after @meetthepress played a clip of her in 2009 making the "Keep your plan" promise pic.twitter.com/5mZSReRBzk
— Wash. Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) November 17, 2013
YouTube. It’s a thing, now.
Sorry to make this all Obamacare, all the time lately: but Megan McArdle’s point here is really, really important.
We forget that when millions of people hear the president say that “if you like your insurance, you can keep it” and “premiums will fall by $2,500 for the average family,” they don’t listen with a wry smile. They don’t write it off as understandable hyperbole from a president who is working to pass a great law with a few flaws. They don’t think this speech means “I care about getting the best insurance for as many people as possible.” They think it means “if you like your insurance, you can keep it” and “premiums will fall by $2,500 for the average family.” If they didn’t think it meant that, they might not have supported the law.
That gap matters — not least because there’s a strong risk that when the people outside Expertopia finally figure out what everyone knew all along, they will turn on the people who allowed all that tacit knowledge to stay tacit. That’s what Democrats are now experiencing. It’s kind of surprising, in fact, that not everyone knew this was going to happen.
Continue reading Remember: the average person is not a stone-cold politics junkie. #obamacare
Since the Affordable Healthcare Act was introduced in 2009, Republicans have dismissed President Barack Obama’s oft-repeated promise that anyone who liked their insurance plan would be able to keep it.
[snip]
For years, the media turned a blind eye to conservatives’ insistent warnings, often taking the president’s promise for granted. But this week, as health insurance cancellation letters started showing up in Americans’ mailboxes and the website roll-out flopped, the GOP message finally broke into the mainstream.
This is annoyingly correct. I mean, I’ve been telling people that “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” was a lie since 2011. Most of the people that I work with in this thing we do knew it, too. We’ve been banging this drum for a long time.
On the bright side: turns out that the GOP leadership actually, you know, might have been listening for once. They’ve certainly been quick to jump on this…
