Rep. Boehner Sees "Rebellion" Akin To 1776

June 29, 2010 1:19 pm ET — Matt Finkelstein

John Boehner

Yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) sounded off on President Obama's policies in terms usually reserved for the far-right fringe. In a wide-ranging interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Boehner claimed that the American public has "written off the Democrats" as a result of progressive policies like the Affordable Care Act, and asserted that "there's a political rebellion brewing" unlike anything since the American Revolution:

"The American people have written off the Democrats," Boehner said Monday in an interview with Tribune-Review editors and reporters. [...]

"They're snuffing out the America that I grew up in," Boehner said. "Right now, we've got more Americans engaged in their government than at any time in our history. There's a political rebellion brewing, and I don't think we've seen anything like it since 1776."

The health care law passed in March "pushed most Americans over the edge," Boehner said.

Boehner, who grew up in the fifties and sixties, did not say how exactly Democrats are "snuffing out" the America of his youth. At any rate, Steve Benen points out that Boehner's assessment of the voters' attitudes is demonstrably false:

More Americans consider themselves Democrats than Republicans; more Americans have a favorable opinion of Democrats than Republicans; more Americans trust Democrats to handle the biggest issues of the day than Republicans...

Meanwhile, public opinion is shifting in favor of the Affordable Care Act. According to the latest Gallup poll, more Americans believe that passage of the landmark reform bill was a "good thing" than a "bad thing."

But Boehner, as usual, won't let reality interfere with his partisan demagoguery. Boehner also suggested that President Obama "overreacted" to the Gulf oil disaster, called for raising the retirement age to 70, and blasted Wall Street reform as "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon." Remember, this is the man who would set the House agenda if Republicans win back the majority in November.