The right gets confused by its own lie

[Emit]

Right-wing groups claim Congress is exempted from Obamacare. But five months ago, they had a very different story

A good lie never dies, and so it is that we get Texas Sen. Ted Cruz telling Mary Matalin, sitting in for Laura Ingraham, Monday: “I think it is disgraceful that President Obama, in just a lawless move, just exempted Congress (from Obamacare].”

“If Congress gets a pass on Obamacare, you should, too,” the conservative group Freedomworks, which has been leading the push to defund the health law, demands. Then there’s John Cornyn, the number two Senate Republican, along with the Wall Street Journal editorial board and Fox News, not to mention former senator and current Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, and all the rest. A Washington Times columnist even called it “treason.”

Sadly, but not surprisingly, they’re all lying to you. Congress did not, and never has, “exempted” itself from Obamacare. Here’s the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn, one of the smartest writers on health care policy anywhere:

As is often the case with these arguments, this one contains an element of truth. Obamacare really does treat congressional employees differently from other people. But that’s because of an amendment written by Senator Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican. The amendment—almost certainly a political stunt designed to embarrass the Democrats—created an ambiguity in the law that the Obama administration had to clarify. Last week the administration issued a ruling and, sure enough, it is getting political grief over it. But there’s no reason it should.

Grassley offered an amendment that would kick members of Congress and their staffers off the federal employee health plan and make them enroll in the new health insurance exchanges, which are mostly for individuals who don’t get employer coverage. If not for his amendment, their insurance scheme wouldn’t have changed at all. Republicans expected Democrats would vote it down, thus giving them an opening to attack the law, but Democrats called the bluff and passed the amendment.

~snip~

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/20/the_right_gets_confused_by_its_own_lie/

[NYC_SKP]

1. Ha, they tried to bluff and ate it!

Glad to read this.

K/R

[silvershadow]

2. "Pants on Fire". They are specialists at that. nt

[MrModerate]

3. That's some pretty nuanced reportin' you got there . . .

I suspect that the (fill in the blank)-Americans who make up the base of the Republican party are not going to be parsing reality with the care they'd need to make a distinction between their asses and a hole in the ground.

[Emit]

4. shameless kick

love the title of this piece