More on the Blahous Paper

I think it's important to once again reflect upon the latest Republican media effort aimed at distorting the true costs of health care reform as signed into law in 2009.

The report itself is a personal paper written by a Republican appointed by Obama to oversee Medicare and Social Security.  Presidents typically appoint one trustee from each party and Charlie Blahous is the current GOP selection.  From head to toe, Blahous is a Bushie.  He served as a special economic assistant to George W. Bush throughout his two terms. Needless to say, economics and numbers are not a real strong point for the guy.

You can read here where Blahous' baseline comes from.  And you can read here to learn why it is one of the dumbest baselines ever used by a grown adult in the history of the universe.

Both are great reads at understanding the Republican methodology used to further justify their Fantasy World.  But to really understand what's going on here consider this:  Republicans are adamant in demanding they get to play by different rules than everyone else.

Using a different report other than CBO with their own fantasy scenarios involved is simply part of creating their double standard.

When it comes to religion, they apply to themselves a completely different standard than they do to their Enemies.  Get this now: they are running as their nominee a guy that believes the Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri, and who believes in multiple Gods and magic underwear and we are never to mention any of it.  That's a far cry from how they treat people who don't vote like they do.

Big Government is another prime example.  When Republicans use government to give trillions in tax breaks to very wealthy corporations and their CEO's it's a Libertyfest.  When someone who doesn't vote on a GOP ticket wants to level a playing field that is indiscriminately designed to favor wealthy elites, they are welfare-loving Big Government hippies.  Even though both used the very same government, the very same institution to levy their policies, one is Freedom f'n Liberty and the other is socialist tyranny.

As we see now with the Blahous paper, fiscal aptitude also gets a double standard.  When a non-partisan government reporting service scores a piece of legislation written by their Enemies and doesn't give them they answer they want, Republicans get to simply write a paper using a completely bogus baseline with "new math" and call it the official Truth Score and then demand the media give it equal treatment as something from CBO.  Apply the same "new math" to their legislation, however?  Not a chance.

It's all about setting themselves a different set of rules.  Rules they don't intend to live by but demand everyone else does.