Last week, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) said he wouldn’t participate in the bipartisan seating intermingling at President Obama’s State of the Union yesterday. “Sitting together being kissy kissy is just another way to try to silence Republicans,” Broun complained, warning that Obama would “spew” his rhetorical “venom” at members.
Except during the speech, it was Broun spewing venom, tweeting, “Mr. President, you don’t believe in the Constitution. You believe in socialism.” And on a right-wing radio show this afternoon, Broun upped the ante:
BROUN: The Republican Party is the party of K-N-O-W. We know how to lower the cost of health care. We know how to take care of the uninsurable. We know how to put patients in charge of their health care and have a market-based, patient centered health care system that’s not going to kill jobs like ObamaCare is going to do. And we know how to stimulate the economy. We know how to create jobs in the private sector. We know how to prevent this huge government take over of health care as well as all of society.
But we are the party of N-O against socialism and that’s what Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama have been proposing is a greater take over of everything in human endeavor in America.
Listen here:
Ironically, seconds after Broun claimed the GOP is “The Party of Know,” Broun reiterated two well-worn falsehoods Republicans have been spreading around since the health care debate began in 2009. PolitiFact.com recently reported that Broun’s claim that the new health care law is “job killing” just isn’t true:
Republicans have used the “job-killing” claim hundreds of times — so often that they used the phrase in the name of the [repeal] bill. It implies that job losses will be one of the most significant effects of the law. But they have flimsy evidence to back it up.
The phrase suggests a massive decline in employment, but the data doesn’t support that. The Republican evidence is extrapolated from a report that was talking about a reduction in the labor supply rather than the loss of jobs, or based on measures that weren’t included in the final health care law. We rate the statement False.
Broun also said that the new health reform law is a “huge government take over of health care.” PolitiFact gave that whopper its “Lie of the Year” award for 2010. It seems like Broun needs to work on a new name for his party.
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