Pricking Republican Reality

Republicans are awesomely skilled at taking lies and seeding them as 'facts' to serve their agenda. This is how Republicans frame the debate. This is how Republicans beat reality into shapes to fit their narrative. This is how these lying pr*cks retain a John Boehner tan-like patina of credibility.

But Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has done an impressive job of dissecting current Republican 'facts' about the popularity or otherwise of Obama's policies. The GOP claims the public does not support these policies and, therefore, the GOP have a popular mandate to justify their campaign of obstruction. But, as Silver demonstrates, they're talking out of their asses.

Here's a list of Obama policies the majority favor despite Republican assertions to the contrary:

54% favor troop escalation in Afghanistan.
57% favor the bank tax proposal.
74% favor raising taxes on salaries more than $250,000 per year.
49% favor letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich expire.
53% oppose the recent corporate campaign finance ruling by the Supreme Court
51% favor cap-and-trade
44% approved of the Cash For Clunkers' program
77% favor the Credit Card Protection Act
59% favor regulation of Wall Street
58% favor the repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'
68% favor expanding hate crimes protection
74% favor the Obama jobs bill
60% favor mortgage relief

Of course, the big missing item is healthcare. Republicans correctly say the public opposes the current bill.

But a majority do favor a public option; favor insurance co-ops to compete with insurance companies and favor banning preexisting condition discrimination.

So, in this case, the Republican lie is one of omission. Are we against reform and on-side with the GOP? Nope. The only reason we disapprove of 'Obamacare' is that it wouldn't do enough.