Bill Cassidy is on MSNBC (with Ali Velshi) right now (3:15 pm, Monday, March 23), spouting with passion how the current GOP’s agenda — focusing on giving no-holds $$$$ to corporations, rather than working people — isn’t that.
I have no reason to think Cassidy isn’t lying. Because he’s done it before.
I picked up a dangerous lie Cassidy told to his constituents over the ACA, when I was delving into the Fakes of Life for my book, How I Learned The Facts of Life. Here’s the incident:
Most troubling is how some politicians feel free to send letters to their constituents containing direct lies about a government program the constituents may very well depend upon.
One appalling example was brought to my attention by the investigative organization, ProPublica, who fact-checked politicians’ letters to constituents on health care, specifically the ACA.
In March 2017, ProPublica reported this:
When Louisiana resident Andrea Mongler wrote to her senator, Bill Cassidy, in support of the Affordable Care Act, she wasn’t surprised to get an email back detailing the law’s faults. Cassidy, a Republican who is also a physician, has been a vocal critic.
“Obamacare” he wrote in January, “does not lower costs or improve quality, but rather it raises taxes and allows a presidentially handpicked ‘Health Choices Commissioner’ to determine what coverage and treatments are available to you.”
There’s one problem with Cassidy’s ominous-sounding assertion. It was false.