From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:
The truth, it is said, will set you free. Unless, that is, you are a Republican and the issue is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Republicans are foaming at the mouth at the nonpartisan agency’s conclusion that the repeal of Obamacare will no replacement in place for the Affordable Care Act will lead to 32 million more uninsured Americans and a doubling of premiums. Speaker Ryan Paul Ryan (R-WI) called the analysis “meaningless,” while Rep. Steve “David Duke Without the Baggage” Scalise (R-LA) fumed “The CBO report assumes no Obamacare replacement.” Today’s conservative apoplexy came less than a week after House Republicans instructed CBO Director Keith Hall–a man they themselves put in the job–not to “score” the budget-busting impact of their Obamacare repeal proposals. And on Friday, former House Speaker and current Trump bath-water drinker Newt Gingrich called for the dismantling of the nonpartisan scorekeeper, because “the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is simply incompatible with the Trump era.”
“The CBO report assumes no Obamacare replacement.”
Perhaps if even a whisp of an idea for what the replacement would be were to be provided, the CBO wouldn’t have to do something silly like assume there wouldn’t be a replacement.
Here’s something that really matters, but it’s starting to look like this will be the new normal. Perhaps the GOP has realized, following Trump’s victory, that it can get away with a lot more than it thought. Why waste time disputing data when you can just ban it? Why fear photographic evidence when you can just deny it? Why care about ethics at all when all your base really wants is for Democrats to be out of power?
Gingrich, by the way, is one of my least favorite politicians. As far as I can tell, he will say just about anything for power. He has no shame.
Paul Krugman once referred to Gingrich as a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.
I’m recalling George Orwell and waiting for Republicans to establish an official “Ministry of Truth.”
I think that’s intentional on Gingrich’s part. Here are an example of him being reasonable about evolution and then him pandering to the Republican base by pretending to be an idiot:
http://discovermagazine.com/2006/oct/discover-interview-newt-gingrich
(see sections: “Do you view evolution as “just a theory” or as the best explanation for how we came to be?” and “Where do you come down on teaching intelligent design in schools?”)
https://thinkprogress.org/newt-gingrich-deceives-on-stem-cell-research-mocks-evolution-86b3729fa3e#.w0nvd448f
“I always tell my friends who don’t believe in this stuff, fine, how do you think — we’re randomly gathered protoplasm? We could have been rhinoceroses, but we got lucky this week?”
People can change their minds, but this isn’t just a different position. This is a totally different way of thinking and talking about it, a thorough intellectual devolution.