There’s nothing more hilarious than repeatedly lying to the people you’ve been entrusted to lead. While President Obama wasn’t available for the laugh fest, a few of his former speechwriters got together with PBS’ Charlie Rose to have a good cathartic chuckle over Obama’s infamous “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it” lie, which earned the president Politifact’s ignominious “Lie of the Year” award in 2013.
The round table laugh session occurred during a discussion on “Charlie Rose: The Week” on Monday, when the host was joined by speechwriters Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and David Litt (recently hired by Funny or Die) to praise Obama for his oratory skills. When Lovett cited writing “serious” speeches about healthcare as some of the work he’s most proud of, Favreau jumped in to blame Lovett for the Lie of the Year-winning line, which they all apparently found hilarious.
The Washington Examiner provides the transcript:
“I really like, I was very — the joke speeches is the most fun part of this. But the things I’m the most proud of were the most serious speeches, I think. Healthcare, economic speeches,” said Lovett.
Favreau interjected, “Lovett wrote the line about, ‘If you like your insurance, you can keep it.'”
“How dare you!” Lovett joked back.
The panel laughed and laughed.
So how did that lie work out for the American people? As PolitiFact admitted back in 2013 — when around 4 million people had already received cancelation letters for the policies they were promised they could keep — not so well.
Here’s a compilation of 36 times President Obama lyingly assured the American people that under his healthcare law they could keep their plans:
