Oliver Willis catches one conservative trying to backtrack without admitting the error and calls it as he sees it:

This is how a liar operates. This is your modern conservative movement, in action.

And, I heartily agree. The truth is that it’s not an Obama Administration initiative, but one begun under Ronald Reagan and Congress with ratification of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, and finalized under George W. Bush in late 2008. Prior to Obama being president of course.

If conservatives want to blame Obama for allowing the EPA ban and Montreal Protocol to proceed, that’s one thing, but that’s not the case at all. They are actually trying to blame Obama for the actual existence of the ban on certain types of asthma inhalers. It’s a great headline. But, it’s a lie.

For all you information wonks, here are the links to the 1987 letter from Ronald Reagan urging Congress to pass the Montreal Protocol and the ruling in 2008 by the Bush Administration to adhere to the Montreal Protocol and ban certain CFC emissions including Epinephrine which is a component of asthma inhalers.

Also, it’s worth nothing that both initiatives were passed when Reagan and GW Bush were lame duck presidents, in the last month of their last terms, traditionally a time when policy unpopular with the voting base is passed, thus making the potential political liability non-existent.