When the first cancellations began going out, like invitations to a hanging, the Obamacare backers in the political class and the media tried to reassure a nervous nation by saying, essentially, Look, that thing about ‘if you like your plan …’ might have been a lie but a) it was a small lie and b) everyone should have known it was a lie.
A mere five percent. Just the individual market. Plans cancelled only because they were substandard. Couldn’t be helped.
With time, and public weariness, this became the conventional wisdom. (Say something enough times on Meet the Press …)
Now, as Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post reports, comes round two:
There will be abundant alibis and explanations and justifications, testing the possibility that the public will accept the big lie if it doesn’t have to swallow it whole but can have it served up in smaller bites.
The good news, if there is any, is that:
