World News Korner

Ted Cruz on Meet the Press builds a case against the Affordable Care Act with lies, lies, and more lies.

I watched this interview with growing agitation as Cruz made one false charge after another against Obamacare, and cited facts that were apparently freshly pulled out of his ass.

And perhaps even MORE upsetting was how many of them David Gregory let slide.

Here is but a sample:

Cruz: "The House last night, at 12:30 in the morning, voted to keep the government open, to fully fund the government. But at the same time, the House responded to the millions of Americans who are hurting under Obama Care. And I think the Senate needs to do the same thing."

Now in this case I will give Gregory a little credit for challenging Cruz on his facts.

Gregory: " You keep saying that the Senate and the House should listen to the American people. I looked at polling this week that shows, in a lot of quarters, the bill is unpopular, the law is unpopular. 56% want to uphold this law. So when you say, "Listen to the American people," they're not necessarily with you."

That was something, but considering how over the top Cruz's statements were I wanted more than that.

Later Cruz makes this statement: "I've spent hundreds of hours cris-crossing the state of Texas, traveling nationally. And people all over the country, they're losing their jobs, they're being forced into part-time work, they're facing skyrocketing health insurance premiums, and they're losing their health insurance."

NOBODY has been directly affected by the law as of yet because it has not been fully implemented, and the parts that have seem to have been consistently beneficial. The only reason that companies might be laying off worker or moving them to part time is to create the impression they are suffering a hardship, and provide talking points to the conservative side of the argument, or are attempting to avoid having to provide health care for their employees. In other words this is a problem created artificially by certain businesses and NOT the direct result of Obamacare.

Then there was this exchange where Cruz tried to blame Harry Reid for the looming government shutdown: "Well, let's be clear what the Senate has done. So far, Majority Leader Harry Reed has essentially told the House of Representatives and the American people, 'Go jump in a lake.' He said, 'I'm not willing to compromise, I'm not willing to even talk.' (It must be noted that in Cruz's eyes a "compromise" would be to repeal the new law, defund the law, or delay the law for a year so that the Republicans can use it against the Democrats in 2014. Because once people know what it's about they will no longer have that in their toolkit. Can't imagine why Harry Reid won't go along with that!) His position is 100% of Obamacare must be funded in all instances, and, other than that, he's going to shut the government down. Now David, I hope he doesn't do that. If Harry Reed forces a government shutdown, that will be a mistake. I hope he backs away from that ledge that he's pushing us towards. But that is his position."

Once again Gregory does challenge him on it not very aggressively.

Gregory: "But Senator, even Republicans that I've spoken to, your colleagues, say, 'Senator Cruz can't blame Harry Reed for shutting down the government. Senator Reed acted. He passed a bill to keep the government open.'"

I do like however that Gregory mentioned that Cruz does not represent the majority of the Republican party.

Later Cruz tries to pretend that his position has the support of the unions:

Okay, look. The facts are becoming more and more clear that Obamacare isn't working. Every day, that's becoming more clear. There's a reason the unions are jumping ship. One union after another is saying, "Let me out." There's a reason why James Hoffa, the president of The Teamsters, said that he was writing on behalf of millions of working men and women, and he used "millions," not hundreds, not thousands. And he said Obamacare was destroying their health care. "Destroying" is his word. Now why is it that Harry Reed and the Senate Democrats are not willing to listen to the millions of working men and women whose health care is being destroyed?

This of course a gross misrepresentation of what Hoffa said, and just three days ago he expressed his anger at being used by the conservatives to further their agenda:

"I call on Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. David Vitter and others to cease and desist from misusing our constructive comments in their destructive campaign to hobble the president and the nation," Hoffa said."Though we may have concerns with specific provisions of the ACA, we share the president’s goal of ensuring that every American has affordable access to top-quality health care," Hoffa said in the statement. "It is on this main point that we disagree wholeheartedly with the efforts of extreme right-wing Republicans to gut the ACA. Any suggestion otherwise is simply political posturing."

There are many more examples just like this, and they are equally enraging to listen to.

However what I took overall from this is that it is proof positive in my eyes that, much like the Tea Party movement, this whole sham is funded by the Koch brothers and their ilk and that it more or less explains why not every conservative is on the same page when it comes to dealing with this new law.

Essentially if you are on the take, like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee you fight this thing with everything you've got. But if you are not receiving the payola then you try to do your job while also watching to see how this whole thing plays out so you are not on the wrong side of history.

Personally I think I can already determine how this is going to go down, and it does NOT benefit Cruz and his Teabaggers politically. However I have little doubt that Cruz has a cushy job waiting for him somewhere if this thing blows up in his face and costs him his reelection bid.

After all look how well being a paid shill worked out for Sarah Palin.

(Full transcript here.)

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