Debunking the Right's Latets Zombie Lie about the ACA

[markpkessinger]

I posted this Facebook note yesterday, after an exchange in which someone asserted one of the right's latest lies about the ACA; namely, that "Congress exempted itself from the ACA."

[font size=4]Debunking the Right's Latest Zombie Lie: "Congress made its members exempt from the Affordable Care Act"[/font]
[font color="gray"]October 4, 2013 at 1:10am[/font]

Ever since President Obama took office in January of 2009, right-wing opponents of health care reform have promulgated lie upon lie about its provisions. We are still, three years after its passage into law, being treated, courtesy of the right's ally and propaganda arm, Fox News, to new ones, or variations on old ones. Earlier today, a friend posted a short status update expressing some exasperation with people who are defending the GOP's action in shutting down the government, and with those who suggest it is the President and Congressional Democrats who should 'compromise.' To that status update, someone commented: "If it is so good, how come the congress, unions, etc. asked to be exempted?"

Behold the latest, widely spread zombie lie about the Affordable Care Act!

This claim has been repeatedly and thoroughly debunked, and still people circulate it Here is what Politifact.com has to say about it:

Political scientist Norman Ornstein, a long-time observer of Congress and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, debunked the claim of congressional exemption in a piece he wrote for the Washington newspaper Roll Call.

"On the assertion that Members of Congress are exempt from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act: also false," he wrote. "Members of Congress are subject under the health care reform law to the same mandate that others are to purchase insurance, and their plans must have the same minimum standards of benefits that other insurance plans will have to meet. Members of Congress currently have not a gold-plated free plan but the same insurance options that most other federal employees have, and they do not have it provided for free. They have a generous subsidy for their premiums, but no more generous (and compared to many businesses or professions less generous) than standard employer-provided subsidies throughout the country."

FactCheck.org examined the broader claim that members of Congress "specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment)," and found it "15 years out of date" in 2010.

The reason: Passage of the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995. It specifically made sure a variety of laws dealing with civil rights, labor and workplace safety regulations applied to the legislative branch of government. The independent Office of Compliance was set up to enforce the laws in Congress.

The act specifically prohibits harassment based on sex, race, color, religion, national origin, age and disability.

Ornstein, who has been sharply critical of Congress (and only last month co-authored a piece for Foreign Policy magazine titled "Yes, Congress Is That Bad&quot said it is "not surprising that, in tough times, Americans would be inclined to believe the absolute worst about their elected officials.

"But at least," he added, "let the criticism be fair and based on facts instead of persistent urban legends."

(see http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2013/jan/16/chain-email/did-members-congress-exempt-themselves-complying-h/ )

And here is an article from just two days ago on the site, MediaMatters.org: http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/10/01/fox-greets-first-day-of-health-care-exchanges-w/196197 .

And there is this very good piece from Factcheck.org: http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/congress-exempt-from-health-bill/ .

Look, it is true that the 'individual mandate' does not apply to folks who have employer-provided insurance (as indeed members of Congress have). But it DOES apply if one either doesn't have health insurance through one's employer, or if one decides (for some inexplicable reason) not to accept the insurance an employer provides. And the insurance plan that covers members of Congress is subject to the same regulations as any other insurer. It is also true that members of Congress receive a rather generous premium subsidy, but take note: virtually everybody who has employer-provided health insurance company receives a premium subsidy from their employer, over and above whatever the employee contribution happens to be. But the premium subsidy for members of Congress, while generous, is not out of line with that provided by most Fortune 500 employers to their employees.

So how is it that after years of reading or hearing about outrageous, horrible things, purported to be part of the Affordable Care Act, only to later see those claims exposed as either outright fabrications or major distortions, from sources like Fox News or The Washington Times, (or reading it in one of those political chain letters conservatives are so fond of circulating), otherwise perfectly intelligent people will hear yet another seemingly outrageous report about the Affordable Care Act from these same sources, and accept the report at face value without greeting it with even the slightest bit of skepticism? And not only to they accept these lies at face value from demonstrably unreliable and dishonest sources, they go on to repeat these lies on social networks and in casual conversation without ever bothering to verify if what they are circulating is, in fact, true!it took me all of about 60 seconds to debunk this particular lie. I went to Google, and typed "debunk Congress exempt from Affordable Care Act," and got dozens upon dozens of hits. I mean, if you have time to post a Facebook comment repeating such a claim, then you really cannot claim not to have had the time to investigate it. There is really no excuse, in this Internet age, for circulating easily refuted untruths -- none whatsoever.

(Oh, and if you hear or read that the government wants to implant microchips into people, that one's false, too!)