This week we’ve discussed all the pieces of health care reform that Congressman King would repeal: Young adults staying on their parent’s health insurance until they’re 26, closing the donut hole in Medicare and making prescription drugs more affordable for seniors, and giving health centers in Iowa the resources they need to stay open and provide health care to communities in the district.

While Christie Vilsack has called on Congress to reform the health care bill, Congressman King continues to call for a full repeal of the bill and has failed to propose any plan for protecting these important provisions. In fact, he said, “I don’t want to hear any talk from Republicans about preserving any aspect of it. It just dilutes the argument. It’s all or none. This is it, we’re all in and I’m ready for that fight.” 

Not surprisingly, convincing Iowans that their children should be kicked off their health insurance, prescription drugs for seniors should be more expensive, and that health centers in their community should close, is a tough sell for Congressman King. Maybe that’s why he has relied on misleading evidence to make his case.

Not only does King continue to falsely attribute the closing of a health care equipment plant in Sioux Center to reform, his campaign is relying on a statistic that independent organizations have found misleading.

In a press release yesterday King continued to argue that the Congressional Budget Office estimated health care reform would kill 800,000 jobs. But, here’s the truth, when Michele Bachmann used this statistic in a debate earlier this year non-partisan groups had this to say: 

• Factcheck.org: “That’s a distortion. CBO said some Americans would work less or leave their jobs if they can get health insurance outside the workplace.”
  
  
• Factcheck.org: “The CBO never said that. The CBO has said the law would have a “small” impact on employment, mainly by reducing the amount of labor Americans decide to supply. In other words, some workers will choose to work less, or retire earlier, because of the health care law. Their jobs wouldn’t be killed.”
  
  
• Politifact.com: In giving the statement a “Mostly False” rating, PolitiFact wrote, “we find that’s an exaggeration of what CBO said. There could be the equivalent of 800,000 fewer workers thanks to the federal health care law, according to the CBO, but not because employers wouldn’t hire them. It’s primarily because workers wouldn’t have to work because the new law expands health care coverage. That means people working most for health insurance would either reduce their hours or leave the job market altogether. There could also be more economic productivity because of the health care law. Bachmann’s statement leaves out so many qualifiers that it becomes misleading.”
  
  
• CBS News: “Overall, Bachmann uses the 800,000 number to suggest that employers would trim 800,000 jobs as a result of health reform. The CBO is not suggesting that at all, and in fact, the report does not make any projection on the effect of health reform on the unemployment rate.”
  
  
• Washington Post Fact Checker: In giving the statement that health care would kill 800,000 jobs three Pinocchios, the Washington Post wrote, “This is the kind of political gamesmanship that gives politics a bad name. The House GOP has taken a a sliver of a phrase and twisted it beyond all meaning. Elmendorf never said 800,000 jobs would be destroyed, and he certainly did not mean to suggest that. Given that Republicans have routinely faulted the CBO for its estimates and assumptions on the health care bill, they should be ashamed of immediately embracing this particular aspect of the CBO’s analysis.”
  
  

Congressman King isn’t willing to have a serious discussion about health care. He has refused to propose a plan that would protect young Iowans, seniors, and everyone who needs access to health care in Iowa. Christie Vilsack has proposed a series of reforms to make health care more affordable and will work to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, quality care.