In terms of performance, I give Boehner's "Hell no!" outrage a 10.
Seriously, I didn't know he had it in him.
He should consider a career in acting. (He couldn't possibly cause as much harm in that line of work.)
I say that because there's no way in Hell that man is sincere in his opposition to the health care reform bill that just passed the house.
Because if he was sincere, then we would have heard an equally fiery speech about the lack of transparency and the lack of accountability in the passage of the 2003 Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Bill.
From the Washington Post, Feb.9, 2005
Beginning with his January 2003 State of the Union address, Bush pledged to keep the total cost of the drug benefit to $400 billion over 10 years. An estimate by the Congressional Budget Office was close to Bush's figure.
But shortly after Bush signed the program into law in December 2003, the White House revised its projection to $534 billion, but it never offered a detailed breakdown of that estimate.
Last March, Richard S. Foster, Medicare's chief actuary for nearly a decade, said administration officials threatened to fire him if he disclosed his belief in 2003 that the drug package would cost $500 billion to $600 billion. Lawmakers in both parties accused the administration of concealing important information that could have derailed passage of the bill.
The White House released budget figures yesterday indicating that the new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost more than $1.2 trillion in the coming decade, a much higher price tag than President Bush suggested when he narrowly won passage of the law in late 2003.
Did John Boehner vote Yes on the Medicare Part D Bill? Yes.
And then did he vote a month later to allow importation of drugs from Canada? No.
So was he concerned about the deficit and the transparency and the accountability of the republican administration's handling of health care legislation? Did he give a fiery speech condemning President Bush and his party?
In July of 2005, long after the true cost of the bill was known, Boehner spoke about the Medicare Part D bill and the cost-savings it provides:
When I first arrived in Congress I promised to be an advocate for fiscal responsibility and accountability. Here are some things I've been working on to keep that promise; to curb the growth in government spending and to ensure that what is spent is spent wisely.
...
Even the Medicare reform act that passed in 2003 contains provisions aimed at lowering costs in the long-term. The inclusion of Health Savings Accounts, which allow individuals to save money in a tax free account for routine medical expenses, will go a long way towards reducing the liabilities of the Medicare program.
And so we get to the heart of the matter. In the faith-based world of "free-market" ideology, if the facts don't fit, you just make up new facts. If you can sound truthy, others will believe you because they want to stay in this faith-based world too.
In the reality-based world, it's probably fair to say that Boehner was sincere about one thing. He sincerely wanted President Obama and the Democrats to fail.
Did they fail? Hell no!
Do they still have a lot more work to do? Hell yes!