Speaker Paul Ryan’s Press Secretary AsheLee Strong tweeted a pack of lies on Trumpcare today:
While we're setting the record straight: AHCA was posted online a month ago, went through 4 committees, & has been scored by CBO — twice.
— AshLee Strong (@AshLeeStrong) May 6, 2017
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
This is an interesting claim, and it’s news Snopes, “the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation,” whose managing editor Brooke Binkowski tweeted back at Strong:
@AshLeeStrong Hi! I'm the managing editor for @Snopes and we'd also love links to back this claim + the current score. Thanks!
— Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) May 6, 2017
In fact, there is a CBO score for the old version of Trumpcare dated March 13 (here). In response to her critics, Strong claimed a March 23 CBO score (here) justified her claim but these still did not address the version of AHCA that was voted on by the House on May 4.
FACT: There is no CBO score for the bill that was voted on and passed by the House on May 4.
Just as obviously, there were no hearings on the version finally presented for a vote.
Strong’s claims provoked outrage on Twitter. Snopes wasn’t the only one to call out the obvious lie. The best and most repeated response, on account of it being both direct and true, was provided by Elliott Lusztig:
@AshLeeStrong That is just an outrageous lie.
— Elliott Lusztig (@ezlusztig) May 6, 2017
VERDICT: AshLee Strong did what her boss does and she lied. She lied huge. Bigly even.
When AshLee Strong claims the “AHCA was posted online a month ago” and “scored by CBO — twice” she lies. The version voted on didn’t exist a month ago and was never scored.
In fact, Strong’s lies are so obvious and glaring it is a surprise she would even bother tweeting them.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
