This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A GOP stunt backfires, and accidentally reveals a truth Republicans want hidden With the Republican campaign to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act now set to enter its final, frenzied push, the Indianapolis Star reports that the Indiana GOP attempted a stunt that was supposed to provide Republicans with more ammunition against the law. But the stunt went awry:

"The Indiana Republican Party posed a question to Facebook on Monday: 'What's your Obamacare horror story? Let us know.'

"The responses were unexpected.

" My sister finally has access to affordable quality care and treatment for her diabetes.'

"'My father's small business was able to insure its employees for the first time ever. .thanksObama'

"'Love Obamacare!'

"'The only horror in the story is that Republicans might take it away.'...

"By 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Indiana GOP's post collected more than 1,500 comments, the vast majority in support of Obamacare."

As David Nather points out in Axios, this reveals that the energy in this battle right now is on the side of those who want to save the ACA. But, while the rate of pro-ACA postings should obviously not be taken as a scientific indicator of public opinion, this episode also neatly captures another larger truth about why it is proving so hard for Republicans to repeal the law: It has helped untold numbers of people, and the GOP bill would largely reverse that.

This is admittedly a simple and obvious point, yet the extraordinary lengths to which Republicans are going to obscure this basic reality continues to elude sufficient recognition. If you think about it, pretty much every major lie that President Donald Trump and Republicans are telling right now to get their repeal-and-replace bill passed is designed to cover it up.

The Washington Post and the New York Times have published two excellent pieces that debunk most of the leading GOP lies and distortions of the moment on health care. The Post piece looks at a series of White House claims. They include exaggerated assertions about Obamacare premium hikes (that don't take into account subsidies that ease costs for lower-income people); and gamed statistics about the number covered by the ACA (that don't take into account the enormous coverage gains achieved by the Medicaid expansion). Most insultingly of all, the White House is criticizing Obamacare because 29 million Americans currently remain uncovered. The spectacularly dumb argument here is actually that Obamacare is failing because it hasn't succeeded in achieving universal coverage, so we should embrace a GOP bill that would leave nearly 50 million uncovered in 10 years.

Meanwhile, the New York Times piece looks at a bunch of claims by congressional Republicans. Among them: The dopey, dissembling, nonsensical assertions that the GOP bill somehow keeps the Medicaid expansion and that Medicaid spending actually goes up (the GOP bill phases out the ACA's federal contributions to the expansion and dramatically cuts Medicaid spending relative to current law, which would leave 15 million fewer covered by that program). And some Republicans are actually blaming Obamacare for the fact that some remain uncovered by the Medicaid expansion in states where GOP governors or legislatures didn't opt into it.

All of these lies and distortions, in one way or another, are meant to obscure two basic realities: The ACA, for all its problems, is actually helping millions and millions of people, and the GOP bill would undo much of those gains. This would not be necessary, if Republicans were willing to forthrightly defend their actual policy goals and the principles and priorities underlying them.

Interestingly, moderate Republican senators are in fact acknowledging the priorities embedded in the GOP plan when they criticize it for trying to roll back the help that the ACA is giving to millions and millions of poor people in order to finance huge tax cuts for the rich. But you don't see many congressional Republicans who support the bill admitting to its most basic features, or defending them with an argument as to why its projected outcome would be worth the bill's trade-offs. Instead, these realities are buried under piles of horse manure about "smooth glide paths" and "rescue missions" and "bridges to better health care" and "soft landings" and all the other claims recounted above about how the ACA doesn't do what it actually does and how GOP bill wouldn't actually do what it is intended to do.