The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto:

“An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he’s giving up,” claims Robert Reich in a Puffington Host post: ” ‘I can’t stomach what’s going on in Washington anymore,’ he says. ‘The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life.’ ”

Reich is a proven fabulist, so one has to assume any story he tells is a tall tale. But we’re interested in the supposed moral of the parable of Reich’s Disgusted Imaginary Friend: “My friend is falling exactly into the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into–such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics.” The “Tea Bag Republicans,” as the homophobic Reich calls them, “want to sow even greater cynicism about the capacity of government to do much of anything.”

In reality, nobody is more disgusted or cynical about government than Tea Party activists themselves–and they have much to be cynical about. The Washington Examiner reports that TeaParty.net “has finally received its tax-exempt status after a three-year delay” caused by the repurposing of the Internal Revenue Service into a political operation aimed at suppressing opposition to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. …

Cynicism is often, as we’ve noted, a product of disappointed idealism–of naiveté being crushed by reality. If Obama’s supporters have been turning cynical, it is because the falseness of his promises is finally becoming undeniable. Take ObamaCare. He promised to accomplish the impossible: to guarantee health care to everyone, offering both higher quality and lower cost than under the (admittedly far from optimal) status quo ante.

The San Jose Mercury News reports on the reality:

Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.

Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.

Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four. . . .

“I was laughing at Boehner–until the mail came today,” Waschura said, referring to House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the Republican charge to defund Obamacare.

“I really don’t like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family’s pocket each year, that’s otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy.” . . .

“Of course, I want people to have health care,” Vinson said. “I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”

Reich acknowledges that ObamaCare “is hardly perfect,” but he insists “the president cannot re-negotiate the Affordable Care Act” because that would mean giving in to the Republicans: “If you give in to bullies, their bullying only escalates.” America is stuck with this monstrous law because the alternative would be too costly to Obama’s pride. Disgust and cynicism seems an entirely appropriate reaction.

Then we have the government shutdown, which the Obama administration has been working to make as painful as possible. FoxNews.com has a list of “7 Things the Government Shut Down That Saved Practically Nothing,” including websites (whose content not only isn’t being updated but has been taken off-line altogether); public parks (such as the normally unattended World War II memorial, which has been fenced off and patrolled by rangers to keep citizens away); and even privately run parks that happen to be situated on public land.

Obama explained his shutdown tactics at a White House press conference yesterday:

Q: Mr. President, while you’re waiting for the shutdown to end, why is it that you can’t go along with any of the bills the House is passing funding the FDA and FEMA, where you were yesterday, and veterans benefits and Head Start? You’ve got to be tempted to sign those bills and get funding to those programs that you support.

Obama: Of course I’m tempted, because you’d like to think that you could solve at least some of the problem if you couldn’t solve all of it.

But here’s the problem. What you’ve seen are bills that come up where wherever Republicans are feeling political pressure, they put a bill forward. And if there’s no political heat, if there’s no television story on it, then nothing happens. And if we do some sort of shotgun approach like that, then you’ll have some programs that are highly visible get funded and reopened, like national monuments, but things that don’t get a lot of attention, like those SBA loans, not being funded.

By the president’s own admission, it’s all about jockeying for political advantage. Arguably it’s working: The Associated Press reports its new poll suggests the Republicans are “taking the biggest hit in public opinion from the shutdown”: “Overall, 62 percent mainly blamed Republicans for the shutdown. About half said Obama or the Democrats in Congress bear much responsibility.” Congress’s approval rating is at a laughable 5%, though Obama’s is 37%, almost as bad by presidential standards.

But again, cynicism and disgust seem entirely appropriate responses. Ronald Reagan was the last president who had a basic skepticism of Big Government, but Barack Obama may end up having done more than any of his predecessors to promote that feeling among the public.

Another example of the fraud that is Barack Obama comes from a comparison of Obama’s comments at a January 2011 event after the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D–Arizona) and his news conference Tuesday, as recorded by Rush Limbaugh:

2011: “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized …”

Tuesday: “Extortion, insane, catastrophic, chaos.”

2011: “We are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently.”

Tuesday: “You have some ideological extremist, extreme Republicans.”

2011: “It’s important for us to pause for a moment.”

Tuesday: “We’re not going to pay a ransom, you don’t pay a ransom, demand a ransom.”

2011: “And make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals.”

Tuesday: “You do not hold people hostage.”

2011: “Not in a way that wounds.”

Tuesday: “Ransom-taking or hostage-taking.”

2011: “Usher in more civility in our public discourse.”

Tuesday: “Burn down the plant or your office.”

2011: “Only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face the challenges of our nation.”

Tuesday: “I’m going to burn down your house.”

2011: “Not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness.”

Tiuesday: “Tea Party Republicans flirted with the idea of default, a nuclear bomb.”

2011: “We should do everything we can do to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.”

Tuesday: “You’re just a deadbeat.”

Nile Gardiner of London’s Telegraph observes:

I’ve just watched Barack Obama’s press conference at the White House, where the president has been talking about the government shutdown and the possibility of a US default over the debt ceiling. It wasn’t a pretty sight. The most powerful man on earth, the leader of the free world,lashed out at conservatives in Congress (whom he labeled as “extremists”), accusing them of “ransom” and “extortion,” even comparing them to a “deadbeat” who doesn’t pay the mortgage.

This was a childish, as well as unpleasant, display of petulance by Mr. Obama, who treats elected officials as though they were puppets who should dance to his tune. It was followed by an embarrassing set of hand-picked questions from a largely subservient liberal-dominated media, none of which seriously challenged the president’s policies or his handling of the shutdown. In the UK, a British prime minister would never get away with this kind of performance without a barrage of relentlessly tough questioning.

Barack Obama’s approach today was imperial in style, both arrogant and condescending, and deeply partisan in outlook. There was not a hint of humility on show from the president, against a backdrop of declining poll numbers and mounting disillusionment with his presidency. The United States is facing the prospect of a default overwhelmingly because of Obama’s big spending, big government programmes, which have added a staggering $6 trillion to the national debt. The shutdown has been prompted by the imposition of a hugely unpopular health care reform, forced on the American people despite the fact that the Democrats no longer control the House of Representatives. This is a president who is incapable of taking responsibility for his own actions, who refuses to listen to any criticism of his policies, and is more willing to negotiate with a state sponsor of terrorism in Tehran than sit down with Republicans in Congress.