The first thing I wrote as the new Congress convened was to point out that the new, Republican powers in Congress intend to lie to us. The evidence was their intent to force CBO to use the deceptively named “dynamic scoring” to determine the budget inpact of legislation. It's a dishonest means by which Congressional leaders will tell CBO to assume Republican legislation will have such positive effect on economic growth it can't be scored poorly...in spite of the fact that the Trickle Down, deregulatory, privatization agenda has slowed economic growth, not increased it.
The lying doesn't begin or end there, however, and soon it will take center stage at the Supreme Court. That's current news, thanks to the government filing it's SCOTUS brief in the absurd case where radical Conservatives seek to destroy insurance coverage for millions of Americans. To do this they're relying on a disingenuous, deceitful, and childish argument, saying “ignore everything else except THIS SENTENCE.” The government's case, by contrast, cites the entirety of the law, the 10 months of Congressional debate leading up to passage, and an extensive body of case law dictating SCOTUS preserve the exchanges.
The dishonesty of the Republican position on Obamacare is perhaps best laid bare in a 2011 debate over what ws called “the 1099 requirement”. That debate took place AFTER 36 states had decided to authorize www.healthcare.gov to administer their exchanges. It's a critical extinction, because Republicans proposed to pay for reduced revenues from the 1099 requirement by reducing the amount of consumer subsidies given out through the exchanges INCLUDING HEALTHCARE.GOV. Republicans KNEW, they were CERTAIN at that time that insurance subsidies offered through the federal exchange were real and valid.
Now they're lying about it.
Congress repealed the 1099 provision at an important moment—after multiple states announced that they would step back and let the federal government establish their exchanges, but before the IRS issued its proposed rule stipulating that subsidies would be available on both exchanges. The only thing Congress had to go on when it stiffened the clawback mechanism was its own reading of the Affordable Care Act, and Congress behaved exactly as you would expect. It operated with the understanding that subsidies were universal.
Today, many Republicans will tell you that the law plainly forecloses subsidies through the federal exchange. Six senators—John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, Rob Portman, and Marco Rubio—and nine congressmen—Marsha Blackburn, Dave Camp, Randy Hultgren, Darrell Issa, Pete Olson, Joe Pitts, Pete Roskam, Paul Ryan and Fred Upton—have even filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, which begins, “The plain text of the ACA reflects a specific choice by Congress to make health insurance premium subsidies available only to those who purchase insurance from 'an Exchange established by the State….' The IRS flouted this unambiguous statutory limitation, promulgating regulations that make subsidies available for insurance purchased not only through exchanges established by the States but also through exchanges established by the federal government.”
All of them, save Cruz, who was elected in 2012, voted for 1099 repeal.
In its brief, the government argues that “it was well understood that the Act gave ‘States the choice to participate in the exchanges themselves or, if they do not choose to do so, to allow the Federal Government to set up the exchanges.’ And it was abundantly clear that some States would not establish their own Exchanges.“ It was more than well understood. Congress actually endorsed that very proposition.
http://www.newrepublic.com/...
How do you know Republican members of Congress are lying? Their lips are moving.