Government Shutdown Healthcare The Daily Banter

That Thing About Unions Being Waived from Obamacare? Another Whopper Lie.

My Monday column:

Last week, we proved that the congressional Republicans and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) have been serially lying whenever they’ve said that Congress is “exempted” from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

In fact, not only is Congress not exempt, but Obamacare specifically mandates that members of Congress, as well as Hill staffers, leave the Federal Employees Benefit Health Plan and attain health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges. Furthermore, it was a Republican lawmaker, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who proposed this amendment to the Obamacare law in the first place. And on top of everything else, it was Boehner who lobbied the Office of Personnel Management to allow the government to continue paying 75 percent of the cost of premiums under the marketplace insurance plans.

So you’d think being caught red-handed in a huge, whopper lie would perhaps dictate some restraint from Mr. Boehner. Perhaps he’d do well to cool it for a while — to exercise a little more caution about what he blurts out while appearing in public.

Appearing on Sunday’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Boehner did it again. The leader of the Republican Party lied about the Obamacare law. Boehner was asked about a previous remark in which he said he wouldn’t attach the de-funding of Obamacare to a continuing resolution. Deftly changing the subject, Boehner replied:

But providing — providing fairness to the American people, under Obamacare, is — all we’re asking for. My goodness. They give big businesses a waiver. They give all these unions a waiver. And yet they’re forcing the American people to buy a product, buy a product that they do not want and cannot afford.

Yes, he went there again. More organizations are unfairly exempted from the law, he said. Notice, however, that he didn’t toss Congress into the mix this time, so perhaps he’s making progress. But let’s zero in on one particular sentence: “They give all these unions a waiver.”

No they didn’t… [CONTINUE READING]