Appearing on Piers Morgan’s CNN program on Tuesday night, HBO’s Bill Maher explained that while President Obama did indeed lie to the American people about keeping their insurance, he had to do so in order to help the dumb Americans. “I think the country in general is on a decline,” Maher explained. That’s because, Maher said, Americans are getting “stupider.” And that means that they must be lied to: “It sure is hard if you’re a politician–not that I’m really that sympathetic to them–to try to get information into people’s heads. I don’t think Obama should’ve lied to people…”
Maher then explained that it was insurance companies’ faults that Americans were losing their insurance programs. Then he continued, “But, yeah, he probably should’ve not been so blatant about saying you…iron clad guarantee. On the other hand, since he got no Republican votes and no Republican help. And since three years after it’s a law, they’re still fighting it, can you imagine what it would be like if he said, ‘Yeah, some people, your rates are going to go up.’ I mean the thing passed by this much. If they had said that, they might’ve lost the whole thing.”
Maher is not the first commentator to justify President Obama’s lying. Josh Barro of Business Insider said the same thing on Tuesday.