Is It True Nancy Pelosi(D-CA) Used Influence To Get Certain Businesses ObamaCare Waivers?
Yesterday the latest DC right-wing rag posing as journalism, the Daily Caller printed a thinly-veiled accusation against Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, implying that she had used her influence to secure waivers of the Affordable Care Act for "fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels" in her district.The Daily Caller is another right-wing conservative rag set up by sleaze-bag Tucker Carlson. Just what the nation needs another outlet for Republican lies. The whole idea behind these sites, radio and television programs is to overwhelm the masses with disinformation with the hope that some of it sticks. Why is lying an institutionalized part of the anti-American movement known as conservatism? Because they cannot win based on the facts.
Republicans, of course, seized on the story, and Daily Caller followed up with a second story for their reaction. "It looks like ObamaCare’s backroom sweetheart deals didn’t end when it became law," Michael Steel, House Speaker John Boehner spokesman told the Daily Caller. Within hours, however, HuffPo's Sam Stein debunked the story.
WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) played no role in the process by which health care waivers were granted to a number of businesses in her district, according to the company that actually requested the waivers on behalf of its clients.
Flex-Plan Services, a third-party benefits administrator based in Bellevue, Wash., made the formal applications for waivers from President Barack Obama's health care law, said it founder, Hilarie Aitken.
"I don’t tend to vote Democratic, but I feel bad for Nancy Pelosi," Aitken told HuffPost. "She’s really being thrown under the bus here. It has nothing to do with her at all. This was just a political power play. The way that they are shaping this—that the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, [is behind] all these waivers being granted, and how could she do this—it’s all slanted and wrong....
In actuality, Aitken explained, the high percentage of waivers is the byproduct of local law rubbing against the new national legislation. In April 2008, San Francisco passed an ordinance requiring employers to spend a minimum amount per hour on health care for their employees who work in the city. In response, a number of eateries chose to set up Health Reimbursement Arrangements, which are essentially pools of funds set aside by employers to reimburse medical expenses paid by employees.
HRAs are serviced by a third-party administrator or plan service provider. They are also subject to the annual limit provision in the national health care law, which is set at $750,000 in 2011 before it is eliminated fully in 2014.
Like many self-insurance policies and union organizations, employers using HRAs have been applying for a waiver from this provision, arguing that application of the requirements would "completely eliminate the benefit" of setting up the HRA in the first place, Flex-Plan Services said. When they do so, they turn not to lawmakers like Pelosi or to the employers themselves, but to third-party administers like Aitken's company. (And, as she hinted, political donations by Flex-Plan have leaned Republican, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.)
Once again, it appears that the facts have a liberal bias, but the Daily Caller isn't going to let facts get in the way of a good smear.
Fox's "Straight News" Anchor Martha MacCallum Regularly Advocates GOP Positions
Fox News defends its credibility as a legitimate news outlet by claiming that there is a dividing line between its news and opinion programming. Purported "straight news" anchor Martha MacCallum, however, has a long record of echoing GOP talking points to advocate for conservative policies.Fox is kind of joke in claiming they are a "news" organization. They can't even report on the weather without adding in some far Right conservative talking point.
