Notice how House Speaker John Boehner turned a deaf ear to the president in his so-called rebuttal to Obama’s July 25 address on the debt ceiling? If you hadn’t noticed, you have plenty of company. The press evidently wasn’t paying attention either.

In his talk, Obama took a hard crack at the GOP for not asking for added revenue from the super-rich. “Let’s ask, the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations,” he pleaded, “to give up some of their tax breaks and special deductions.” Obama’s repeated argument for a “balanced approach” to which the wealthy also would contribute was a key part of his position.

Boehner’s talk, immediately on the heels of the president’s, was billed as a rebuttal. “Rebuttal: an attempt to contradict or dispute.” Call it false advertising, for almost everything that Obama said about shared sacrifice simply was ignored or unanswered by Boehner. His only response to the call for action on the revenue side was an anemic eight words: “I know those tax increases will destroy jobs.”

An alternative explanation: A reincarnated Rosemary Woods had come back to bedevil the GOP once again by wiping out much of what Boehner had to say about revenue from the rich. That’s as plausible as what Boehner actually said, which was a non-sequitur.

Democrats may have been irritated at the networks for giving the Republicans equal time. It turns out they should be grateful. Boehner’s pitiful defense of why his party refuses to ask for shared sacrifice from those with the most had to be seen to be believed.