Obama needs to be held accountable for the lies behind Obamacare sell

Letter to the Editor,

Americans are quite accustomed to the hyperbole and Machiavellian maneuvering employed by politicians to get their way.

Over the years, however, we have demonstrated a definite intolerance for being blatantly lied to. Richard Nixon may have been forgiven for his involvement in the Watergate scandal had he admitted to it instead of lying about it. The lie cost him the Presidency. Similarly, Bill Clinton narrowly avoided a similar fate over the Monica Lewinsky scandal only because of favorable treatment by the liberal press.

Barack Obama has managed to talk his way out of even more damaging scandals than his predecessors with the help of the liberal media and by denying personal involvement. This strategy has damaged his perceived competence, but allowed his credibility to come away relatively unscathed.

When he told the American people on network TV, however, that they could keep their present health care plan and doctor if they chose rather than sign up for Obamacare, this was an outright lie. Obama reiterated this falsehood on different occasions at least 30 times. Now he compounds the lie by telling us he clearly stated we could keep our existing health care plan only if it conforms to Obamacare’s provisions.

The problem with this latest statement is that there is no record of his having previously said it. At this point, despite favorable treatment by the press, despite heroic efforts by Obamacare devotees to spin their way out of this deception, the fact is now abundantly obvious that Obama told us a bold-faced lie in order to win support for Obamacare.

Will the people give their president a pass on this latest outrage? I’m anxious to find out.

                                                                                                                   —Bill Payne

                                                                                                                              Libby