Rep. Lyin' Bryan Steil went on UpFront Sunday morning and spoke with Matt Smith. Steil started with the standard Republican lying points of blaming Democrats for the Republican government shut down. Smith then tried to pin down the double-talking Steil on the sticking point of the shut down - the Affordable Care Act. Steil's responses wer
e very telling:
SMITH: Senator Thune this past week said that he would guarantee Democrats a vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies if the government is reopened. You're close to the Speaker. Is that guarantee there in the House as well?
STEIL: I think there is an absolute willingness to discuss the policy changes that are needed to make sure that we're getting this country back on track. I don't want to speak for the Speaker or the Senate Majority Leader, but I think all of us are open to making sure that once we have the government open and operational and passing this clean CR, that everyone will be forced to come to the table to finalize negotiations on fiscal year 26 appropriations and other policy priorities.
SMITH: There's some 300,000 Wisconsinites using the Affordable Care Act. Would you vote to extend the subsidy stay for a year?
STEIL: We know that those enhanced subsidies that go to insurance companies are ripe with waste, fraud, and abuse as they were extended. At a minimum, there would need to be significant changes to that program to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. All part of the conversation that we should be having in Washington rather than fighting over this clean CR.
SMITH: So, you're a maybe if that came to the floor?
STEIL: Well, I'd like to see the final bill text. What I would note is that the Democrat past language that we're currently living under is ripe with waste, fraud, and abuse. There's a number of studies showing how this program is being abused to the detriment of those that truly need the assistance. So, I think we have an opportunity at a minimum to make significant reforms in the program.
If you watch Steil's face, you can see that he is prepared to spew his memorized talking points even before Smith is finished asking his question. Another tell is that he keeps repeating the same exact words over and over. He's simply regurgitating instead of paraphrasing.
What he did make clear is that the GOP wants to pass the CR so that they can get the public off their back and they can go about dismantling the ACA even though they have no plan of their own. Well, maybe the no plan is the plan.
I also had to laugh at his feeble attempt to convince the viewer to believe that the Guardians of the Pedophiles would actually bargain in good faith, if those gosh darn Democrats would just go along with ther not so clean CR. Yeah, right. There's a reason why Wisconsinites refer to Steil as Lyin' Bryan, and it isn't just because it rhymes.
