More lies and the Lying Liars who tell them

     This time it’s lying by innuendo and omission. A recent political attack ad, which never mentions Rick Scott by name or his alter super villain persona- Medicaid Fraud Man, shows Charlie Crist being “interviewed.” I say “interviewed” because it takes video of Crist answering a question, spliced into commentary by one of those snotty, snide voiced attack ad voiceover guys. 

       I am not a huge fan of Charlie Crist, and I am much more concerned about the misinformation the ad causes related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) than defending the honor of former governor “tan in a can.”  We may very well see similar ads from Crist, who has the state wide support of the John Morgan law empire behind him.  

      The spot begins with Crist being asked about his impressions about the impact of the ACA on and in Florida.  His response is “I think it’s been great.”  Snotty voice over man then weighs in. “"Great?" the narrator says.  "News reports say 300,000 health plans cancelled. Obama says patients may lose their doctors. The federal government says less work hours for American jobs," the narrator says, as an apparent quote from a February Congressional Budget Office report appears on the screen: "Obamacare will drive 2.5 million Americans out of the workforce."

     The supposition here is that viewers/listeners aren’t smart enough to discriminate between fact and fiction, or worse, and sadly, probably closer to the truth, will take what they hear as true, rather than find out the facts regarding the claim.  The first insinuation is that 300,000 Floridians are now without of insurance because of the ACA, coupled with a line essentially blaming the President if they have to change doctors. As one who negotiated health care issues for about ten years, I would acknowledge that people hate to change doctors. I would also point out, however, that the vast majority of health care plans with networks of providers have physicians move in and/or out of network all the time. It has been a fact of life ever since that darling of the Insurance industry, the HMO was incepted decades ago. So much for the “lose your doctor” claim, which is phrased almost as to imply that people will lose their doctor and have to treat themselves, since no other doctor of similar quality exists.   

     The claim that 300,000 Floridians health care plans were cancelled is the most insidious, because, as the first part of a statement of fact, it is relatively indisputable. First of all the source is cited as : “News Reports.” Which News?  Faux News? The “Tea Party Tattler?”  Ignoring the issue of legitimacy, such a statement to be valid should state, “While it may be true that 300,000 Floridians lost their health insurance, all were able to get new policies, most of them cheaper, and by law, all of them better, than the one that was cancelled, because the ACA makes many of the pre ACA predatory practices of insurers illegal.”   The internet abounds with regional attack ads of this nature, every single one of them unable to withstand the scrutiny of objective fact checks. The Conservative fact checker, Politifact, has debunked so many that they now lump them together.

      So that’s the first “lie.”  The second is more devious yet, since it is simply made false by a one word substitution.  The ACA, will allow, not "force", some workers who now must work full time to maintain health care benefits for the family, to go to part time, or some combination of reduced hours. We all know persons who would love to stay at home and raise small children or work part time, who have felt the need to work full time hours only to maintain health care coverage through their employer. These collective reduced hours added up and divided by forty (hours/week) can be “spun” as lost jobs when they are really the opposite. For every forty hours by which newly insured persons collectively and voluntarily reduce their schedules, another job is created, not vice versa.

The second part of the lie is that is the gist of what the coited CBO report actually says.  Here’s the quote:

        (The CBO estimated that the ACA would )  "Reduce the total number of hours worked, on net, by about 1.5 percent to 2.0 percent during the period from 2017 to 2024, almost entirely because workers will choose to supply less labor — given the new taxes and other incentives they will face and the financial benefits some will receive." This would equal a "decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024," the report continued.  "By providing subsidies that decline with rising income and by making some people financially better off, the ACA will create an incentive for some people to work less," 

An important distinction in the report is that labor force may reduce by the equivalent of 2.5 million full-time workers over the next decade. That doesn’t mean 2.5 million people will leave their jobs or become unemployed. Some people will only cut back a few hours or leave a second part-time job, which likely will create jobs.

So, kids, stand by for the political attack ad barrage that will surely follow, given Rick Scott’s huge war chest and lack of character.