This is “Read My Lips” All Over Again

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | August 30th, 2013

During the 1988 Republican Convention, then Vice President George H. W. Bush uttered a phrase that would destroy his Presidency — “Read my lips, no new taxes.”

Just two years later, voters realized they had read a lie on President Bush’s lips. He negotiated a budget agreement with Democrats in the United States Congress that raised taxes. Republicans in the House of Representatives rallied against their own President. Ed Rollins, then Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, advised Republicans to campaign against the President in 1990. “Do not hesitate to distance yourself from the President,” Rollins wrote in a famous memo. President Bush demanded congressional Republicans fire Rollins, but the House Republicans held on him. The House GOP lost a net of 8 seats and the Senate GOP lost 1 seat.

Since 2010, they have pledged to do anything and everything to fight and end Obamacare. 40 times the House Republicans have taken symbolic votes so their voters know they are committed to repeal. On March 23, 2013, Mitch McConnell tweeted his plan to repeal Obamacare by driving up constituent outrage.  But now, with a continuing resolution before them, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and their cohorts are refusing to hold to their word to fight Obamacare. The constituent outrage they are driving up is against them…...Senator Rob Portman of Ohio wrote a letter to Kathleen Sebelius about Obamacare. All he wants is Obamacare delayed until the infrastructure is in place to handle the volume of people who will be forced into the exchanges. He won’t defund it. He does not even want to delay — except to make sure “the necessary leadership and preparation are in place to ensure that the marketplace can handle the volume on day one of enrollment.”.  .....To Read More…..