Stephen Colbert Flawlessly Mocks Republican Heartbreak In Wake Of Obamacare Success

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On Tuesday night’s episode of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert began the show with a bang. The mock conservative host lampooned Republicans by lamenting the fact that millions of Americans now have health insurance. He then showed clips from earlier in the day revealing that due to Obamacare, 7.1 million people have been able to obtain a private health insurance plan in the marketplace.

After playing those clips, Colbert complained about how crowded his doctor’s office will be now that there will be 7.1 million other patients in line before him. He then pointed out that in recent weeks, conservatives had assured him that there was no way that the ACA would meet its goal. This was followed by clips from right-wing pundits, mostly on Fox News, stating with absolute certainty that Obamacare would fall far short of its intended target.

The clips Colbert played included some priceless statements from notable conservatives, such as John Sununu saying on March 11th that the enrollment figures would top out at 4-1/2 million. Another funny one was Karl Rove using his white board about a week ago to demonstrate how it was impossible for the ACA to reach this target. This led to a funny bit where Colbert referred to Rove and ‘Boardy’ as a couple and pondered how they could get this wrong after calling Ohio for Romney back in 2012.

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Colbert revealed that he didn’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, pointing out that he had to cancel his ‘Obamacare = Failure’ parade. He also stated that he had to cancel another event, ‘Stephen Colbert’s Rockin’ Enrollment Failure Eve’ which was to be co-hosted by T.I. and Ryan Seacrest. Their plan was to drop an uninsured person at midnight and not take him to a hospital since he wouldn’t have insurance.

After that, Colbert highlighted how a late influx in young people led to the surge in enrollments in the end. He then said that nobody could have foreseen college students waiting until the last minute to get something done. This was followed by clips of conservative news hosts in denial. Colbert playfully mocked these pundits by claiming that numbers are just abstract concepts and that we use Arabic numerals. Obviously there is a conspiracy at foot!

Colbert then brought the segment to a close by playing video of the President’s remarks Tuesday afternoon in the Rose Garden, where he ripped into Republicans for actively trying to deny millions of people the chance to get health insurance. The Report host felt that was ‘dirty politics,’ as pointing out that Republicans don’t want people to have insurance could hurt their chances to retake the Senate in these midterms, and then they wouldn’t be able to take away people’s insurance. He then concluded that this was all a big April Fool’s Day joke four years in the making. Seriously, Colbert asked, do you really think conservatives wanted America to be the only Western industrialized nation without affordable health care?

As always, Colbert used his faux-conservative shtick to masterfully shine the mirror at Republicans and show just how foolish they are. In this instance, he ridiculed right-wingers for constantly campaigning against the law and openly rooting for it to fail. By stating that it was all an April Fool’s Day joke at the end, Colbert is divulging to viewers the long-term plan for many Republicans when they finally realize that they’ve completely lost on this issue. They will merely turn around and say that they’ve supported this law all along.

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).