MSNBC’s Joy Reid apparently believes that the memory of the American public is so horrendous, that she actually attempted to rewrite the history of the passing of ObamaCare on Wednesday’s All In in an attempt to smear the GOP. “Republicans have been saying for SO LONG that they're going to repeal and replace, repeal and replace,” she exclaimed to Democratic strategist Jess McIntosh, “It's just like a catch phrase but they never had a risk of having to do it because they always had Barack Obama to save them from themselves.”
“Now that they have to do it, do you think they will actually go forward,” Reid joked. To which McIntosh replied with a laugh, “You know I don't. I think Republicans really like to govern by catch phrase because they don't like to govern.”
Reid allowed her friend to paint the Democratic Party as the hero who rode in to save the day because, “We cared about fixing that problem because Democrats believe that government can fix certain problems that need to be fixed.” But neither of them would dare mention the new problem of customers still unable to afford to pay the skyrocketing premiums. She went on to claim that Republicans practice, “catch phrase obstructionism and that's how they brand their party.”
The MSNBC host then wondered if congressional Republicans would go through the, “excruciating public horrible process of trying to reconfigure the entire American health care system in public?” If Obama and congressional Democrats really constructed the law for the public to witness they wouldn’t have had backroom negotiations over “sweetheart deals.” That’s not to mention the infamous “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it” line from then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It’s rather telling that she described crafting a bill with public accountability as “excruciating” and “horrible.”
“No! I mean, it didn't help Democrats politically and especially when Democrats had to do it while Republicans were standing there yelling ‘death panels’ and ‘you're going to push grandma off a cliff,’” McIntosh recalled. But her memory seems to be a bit fuzzy there because that was Democrats who produced a video showing Congressman Paul Ryan’s Medicare privatization plan would “push grandma off a cliff.” Only later did the GOP make a spoof of the video with Obama pushing grandma.
In what seemed like a replay MSNBC’s greatest hits, Reid turned her sights on the Tea Party, wondering if liberals could copy it. “[Republicans] were able to create this thing called the Tea Party that started out calling homeowners deadbeats if they couldn't pay their mortgages,” she lied, “But it suddenly became this really well-funded faux grass-roots kind of thing which just went after health care every minute, every minute.”
“I don't think that we can replicate the Republican strategy because we are bound by principle,” McIntosh quipped, “I don't think that we can have a Democratic Tea Party.”
Both of their own memories seem to have faded in that regard because the fact of the matter is, Democrats did have their own version of the Tea Party and it was called Occupy Wall Street. Occupy was a movement of radical leftists who squatted on public and private property across the country and was known for assaulting people and violent riots. That’s probably a good enough reason to want to rewrite history.
Transcript below:
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MSNBC
All In
January 4, 2017
8:11:21 PM EasternJOY REID: Here's the thing. Republicans have been saying for SO LONG that they're going to repeal and replace, repeal and replace. It's just like a catch phrase but they never had a risk of having to do it because they always had Barack Obama to save them from themselves.
JESS MCINTOSH: Right.
REID: Now that they have to do it, do you think they will actually go forward?
MCINTOSH: You know I don't. [Laughter] I think Republicans really like to govern by catch phrase because they don't like to govern. The reason why the president spent so much political capital putting the Affordable Care Act in place and remember how long and awful it was to be a Democrat working on the hill at that moment, that-- that was really intense.
He did that, we all did that, because it mattered so much. Because we cared so much about making sure that millions of Americans got insurance who didn't have it before. We cared about fixing that problem because Democrats believe that government can fix certain problems that need to be fixed. Republicans don't share that belief -- at least Republicans today don't. They don't believe government is a solution to the problems that America is facing. So they obstruct. They use catch phrase obstructionism and that's how they brand their party. Their party is very little more than a brand right now.
Now we have to see them actually implement these tenets. No one is going to be spending political capital to get this done. No one is going to put their name on we're going to have the replace package here. And if Trump decides to start tweet that the Republicans in Congress are doing it wrong, they're going to turn around and run away faster than it will make his head spin.
REID: The thing is, there once was a Republican health care plan. It's called ObamaCare! Right?
MCINTOSH: Yeah, they did that.
REID: So since Democrats took their plan, right, and there isn't a new plan on the table, they keep saying, “Oh no, we've got a secret plan, we've got a secret plan.” What would be the political import, what would be the incentive to go through the same Senate finance process that we saw Democrats go through, to go through that excruciating public horrible process of trying to reconfigure the entire American health care system in public? Would that help Republicans at all politically?
MCINTOSH: No! I mean, it didn't help Democrats politically and especially when Democrats had to do it while Republicans were standing there yelling "Death panels” and “you're going to push grandma off a cliff." If we go back to a system where, like Congresswoman Bass was saying Chemo patients are kicked off their insurance after a couple sessions. That is an actual death penal. You really will have Americans saying, “I can't afford life-saving treatment.”
So you're going to do it under the guise of real stories being told. It's not going to be a talking point. It not going be a Sarah Palin blog post. It’s going to be actual Americans who live in the states these people are supposed to be representing. So there's this other layer that they have to get through which is the political perception of what happens when they yank health care away from millions of Americans who need it.
REID: Then there's the part two, because the thing Republicans are actually quite good at is the atmospherics, right, the staging. And they were able to create this thing called the Tea Party that started out calling homeowners deadbeats if they couldn't pay their mortgages. But it suddenly became this really well-funded faux grass-roots kind of thing which just went after health care every minute, every minute. It had all the optics that you needed. Do you see evidence that Democrats can figure out how to message discipline, get you know ads on the air and actually do the mechanics of politicking?
MCINTOSH: I don't think that we can replicate the Republican strategy because we are bound by principle and we are bound by an ideology that government is supposed to do good for the people that it’s represented—that it's elected to represent. I don't think that we can have a Democratic Tea Party. That said. I think we can do a much better job of sloganeering and running ads and telling real people stories. It's not about everybody to wear shirts saying "Make America sick again." It's making sure that America knows the real-life consequences to their families and neighbors of what Republicans are trying to do. That's the democratic mandate.
…
