Greg Mankiw has posted a brief analysis of the President’s repeated, and apparently false, assertion that, “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”
1. The White House staff did not know the statement was false. That is, they did not understand the law the administration was promoting.
2. The White House staff knew the statement was false, but they decided to keep this fact from the President. That is, they let the President unwittingly lie to the American people.
3. The White House staff knew the statement was false and told the President so, but the President decided to keep saying it anyway. That is, the President consciously decided to lie to the American people.
Options 1 and 2 are a little problematic. Both imply that the President didn’t really understand his own signature legislative achievement. Option 1 implies that not only did the President not know what he was doing, but also that he employed people couldn’t grasp a fairly obvious implication of the ACA.
To simplify is the President a liar (Option 3) or a moron (Option 1 or 2)?
It’s difficult to know for sure, but the President would probably prefer liar. Perhaps somebody in the Whitehouse press corps should ask.
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