Grass is green, the sky is blue, and Republicans lie

From TPM:

Despite the consistent refutation of their claim that the Congressional Budget Office said Obamacare would cost the country 2 million jobs -- even from within their own party -- Republicans are now putting the attack in congressional ads.

A new web ad by Rep. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in North Carolina, blasts Hagan for "2 million lost jobs" because of her support for the health care reform law, the Washington Post reported.

"How many workers will have to lose their jobs?" the ad says. "How many people will have to pay for Kay Hagan’s loyalty to Obama?"

As House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) explained Wednesday, the CBO analysis did not conclude that Obamacare would result in 2 million jobs being "lost." It said that some Americans would choose to work less under the law -- and, if you added those lost hours together, they would be the equivalent of 2 million full-time jobs.

Sure. Some people continued to work - often despite chronic illnesses - because they simply couldn't get health insurance any other way. But this makes Obamacare a huge benefit for them, not a drawback. They're not "losing" their jobs.

Stephen Colbert had a segment about this last night, too - and about the Obama Administration's rather feeble attempt at explaining the truth.

But that's the thing about lies. They can be simple, because any connection to reality is just coincidental. The truth is often harder to explain than a lie. It's just,... you know, true.

I'm sure we'll hear this a lot from Republicans now - especially if it seems to work. They know it's a lie. They're not that stupid. But by and large, they are that cynical and that unprincipled.

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PS. Did I mention cynical and unprincipled? Also from TPM:

Some supporters might have been confused by recent campaign websites that appear to be soliciting donations to support a candidate, while the literal text of the site is actually about defeating the candidate. It's a trick that's been popping up more frequently, and it's perfectly legal -- even if it looks deceiving.

Earlier this week, the National Republican Congressional Committee set up quasi-campaign websites for House Democrats facing tough re-election battles, including Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), Amanda Renteria (CA), Martha Robertson (NY), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and John Tierney (MA). There was also a site for Alex Sink, the Democrat hoping to recapture the late Rep. C.W. Bill Young's (R) seat in Florida.

The websites were nearly carbon copies of a campaign website to support the candidate right down to the URL; one domain was registered as JohnTierny2014.com. The key detail is that they asked for donations to "help defeat" the candidate -- something only careful readers might catch.

Stay classy, GOP!

I'm reminded of a comment by Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr., years ago: "I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them."