Well, that didn’t take long… Less than three months after taking her oath of office, Congresswoman Karen Handel has already earned her first Politifact: False thanks to her undying goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act. After campaigning against increased access to healthcare coverage, Handel has easily assimilated to life in Washington, where House Republican’s only “accomplishment” this year is the reckless and harmful healthcare repeal bill.
“Throughout her campaign, Congresswoman Handel made ripping away people’s healthcare a top priority,” said Cole Leiter, DCCC spokesperson. “Clearly, nothing has changed for Karen Handel now that she finally got herself elected, and she’s willing to flat-out-lie in order to defend her heartless pursuit. Handel’s position is troubling and dangerous for the people of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. After all, it’s their healthcare that will be at risk as long as she’s in office.”
Well, that didn’t take long… Less than three months after taking her oath of office, Congresswoman Karen Handel has already earned her first Politifact: False thanks to her undying goal of repealing the Affordable Care Act. After campaigning against increased access to healthcare coverage, Handel has easily assimilated to life in Washington, where House Republican’s only “accomplishment” this year is the reckless and harmful healthcare repeal bill.
“Throughout her campaign, Congresswoman Handel made ripping away people’s healthcare a top priority,” said Cole Leiter, DCCC spokesperson. “Clearly, nothing has changed for Karen Handel now that she finally got herself elected, and she’s willing to flat-out-lie in order to defend her heartless pursuit. Handel’s position is troubling and dangerous for the people of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. After all, it’s their healthcare that will be at risk as long as she’s in office.”
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Karen Handel wrongly says Obamacare tax increase largest ever in her lifetime | Politifact Georgia
By Jon Greenberg
Republican lawmakers may have hit a brick wall in their drive to do away with Obamacare, but newly elected U.S. Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga., stands firm on the need to repeal the health care bill. At a recent telephone town hall, a voter asked why she was not a fan of repairing the Affordable Care Act.
“The issue with quote ‘repairing the Affordable Care Act’ is the fact that it has so many taxes in it,” Handel said Aug. 30. “In fact, the Affordable Care Act is the single largest tax increase in my lifetime history. You can’t repair a tax. You have to repeal it. You have to get rid of it.”
A reader asked us if the tax hike in the 2010 health care law was as large as Handel said.
Handel was born in 1962, so we looked at the research on every major tax bill passed since then.
We reached out to Handel’s office to learn the source behind her statement and did not hear back.
To fully test Handel’s statement, we picked the year with the highest amount for each bill. (Tempalski provided a 4-year average but that diluted the magnitude of the Obamacare taxes.)
Handel said the Affordable Care Act is the single largest tax increase in her lifetime. Using constant dollars, three tax laws ranked higher. Relative to the size of the U.S. economy and federal revenues the year before, six tax hikes were larger than those in the Affordable Care Act.
We rate this claim False.