from paul krugman’s blog in today’s NYTimes

Chris Christie says that Obamacare is “a failure on a number of levels”. Which levels, exactly?

I mean, first-year enrollment is above projections. The number of Americans without insurance has dropped sharply. Costs appear to be lower than expected, and more broadly cost control on health seems to be doing remarkably well:

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To some extent I suspect that Christie is living in the bubble; I keep remembering how Rand Paul was shocked and disbelieving at the proposition that government employment had fallen under Obama, even though all it takes to know that is a quick look at public data.

But it’s not just misinformation; the reality doesn’t matter for Christie, or Republicans in general. Just as tax cuts can never fail, programs that help the unlucky can never succeed.

My thoughts: Christie Christie is not “living in the bubble” — he is employing Cheneyspeak, in which language is not used for communicating facts. Its purpose is to persuade others to join your side. It does not matter what you say, as long as someone can be persuaded by it. In other words, he’s LYING. Pure and simple. Don’t give these guys any benefit of the doubt that they don’t know what’s happening. They can’t admit it and retain any hope of surviving the Republican base’s jungle of ideologically driven hatred for all things Obama; but that doesn’t excuse them for their cowardice in refusing to be open and honest about what they actually do know full well.

So Chris Christie says that Obamacare is “a failure on a number of levels”. Which levels, exactly? I think the answer must be: Federal, state, and local elections for Republican candidates.