It Is Very, Very Difficult Indeed to Have a Technocratic Conversation with These People…

It is a great puzzle: tell me, what is to be done to raise the level of the debate in a politics that includes such people in high federal office?

Kevin Drum: Republicans Refuse to Cover the Poor, Then Complain that Obamacare Isn’t Covering the Poor:

The New York Times has gotten hold of the “House Republican Playbook” on Obamacare, and I have to admit that it brought back warm memories. It’s just like the launch kits I used to produce for our sales force…. It’s all pretty predictable stuff: Obamacare is an abomination; people are losing their insurance; small companies are being ruined; etc. etc. But I have to say that this is my favorite talking point:

Millions more uninsured: the number of Americans left uninsured by ObamaCare has risen by 8 million from the initial estimate.

Needless to say, this is primarily because Republicans governors have refused to implement Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, even though it’s 100 percent paid for at first and 90 percent paid for forever. These governors literally prefer to have their state’s residents pay taxes and get nothing in return rather than give so much as an extra dime to poor people who need health care. It’s truly hard to fathom what kind of human being is callous enough to do this, but apparently there are a bunch of them in the Republican Party. And then, just to add a cherry of chutzpah on top of this ice cream sundae of spitefulness, they crow about how Obamacare isn’t covering as many people as Obama hoped it would. You really have to marvel.