Republicans Don't Know They've Lost On Obamacare

If the reaction Sunday of GOP Sen. John Barrasso is anything to go by, the GOP has no idea how to handle the news that Obamacare is working for millions of Americans.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) on Sunday dismissed the White House’s recent announcement that Obamacare enrollment had reached more than 6 million people, calling it a meaningless figure.

“I don’t think it means anything. … I think they’re cooking the books on this,” said Barrasso on “Fox News Sunday.”

Cooking the books.  Republicans will never believe a single American soul has been helped by Obamacare, except 9.5 million previously uninsured Americans have gotten coverage.  They exist, so Republicans are simply going to pretend they don't.

Steve Benen sums it up:

Even by GOP standards, this was a rather extraordinary moment. A member of the Senate Republican leadership – indeed, the chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee – went on national television to accuse the White House of perpetrating a fraud based on nothing but his own hopes.

It’s hard to overstate how difficult it is to take Barrasso’s complaints seriously. For one thing, note the extent to which the far-right senator wants to have it both ways. When enrollment totals were low, Barrasso said the figures were very important. When enrollment totals surged, Barrasso said the figures don’t mean anything. At least some form of intellectual consistency would be a welcome change of pace, but it’s apparently in short supply.

For another, there’s literally no evidence to suggest the enrollment totals are illegitimate or have been “cooked” for political purposes. For a Senate leader to make such a reckless accusation out of frustration – a U.S. senator is apparently annoyed by American consumers gaining access to affordable medical care – is deeply irresponsible.

Nobody should be surprised by this, of course.  But this is where the Republican rhetoric has descended to, that of deeply hateful, stupid people.