I had a friend who had ambitions of being a comedian, the problem was that he wasn’t always that funny, even though he was convinced he was. This led the rest of his friends to develop the “Death of a Joke” pathology; which described how a not funny joke descended into an excruciating experience.

If joke does not get a laugh, tell it again.
If it still does not get a laugh tell it again, louder.
If it still does not get a laugh, tell it again and explain it.
Still no laugh, try telling it in a funny (as in odd not as in ha-ha) voice.

It was kind of sad to see Ricky do this, but it is going to be even sadder to see Rep. Paul Ryan doing his version of this with the Medicaid killing provision of his regressive budget.

He genuinely fails to understand that people don’t like the idea of changing the existing fee-for-service system of Medicaid into a voucher program that won’t actually cover the cost of insurance going forward. Rep. Ryan seems to think that people just don’t get the plan, just like Ricky thought that we did not understand the joke.

Today we saw part one, of this theater of the absurd where Rep. Ryan went and tried to re-spin the plan by retelling his “joke” saying that it his plan was going to give seniors more choice while the Dems plan will deny them health care.

This is of course the same BS that all the Republicans tried to spin about “choice” when they went home and got that grandma and granddad beat down at the Town Halls. What they seem to always fail to include is that this choice means a choice not just of plans (that won’t want to cover them because they are older and more expensive) but between Fancy Feast and that blood pressure medicine. But Grandma and Granddad weren’t fooled the first time, so don’t expect them to be fooled this time.

What will come next is them telling their lies louder. Rep Ryan is already hinting at the lie by he’ll use “The Dems will deny you health care” instead of the reality, that under the Ryan plan it’ll be the insurance companies that deny people, through premiums no one will be able to afford.

Next will be the explaining. I have no idea how bad that will go, since when you get down to it every time Republicans say “We are going to change Medicare to a voucher systems” it makes people hate the plan more.

But what I can’t wait for is when Ryan and the Republicans try to tell us this same tired joke in some kind of funny voice. I hope that it is a high pitched English accent. That always gets a laugh!

What is on your minds tonight Firedogs? The floor is yours!