On Sunday, Maine’s Gov.-elect Paul LePage — a Tea Party activist who ran on repealing the Affordable Care Act and infamously told President Obama to “go to hell” — announced that Maine should join the multi-state lawsuit challenging the law because if 35 states joined the suit, it “dies, automatically.” “I am going to be sitting with our attorney general and ask him to join the (health care reform) lawsuit against the federal government,” he said, adding that he had just learned about the 35-state rule.

Haven’t heard about the 35-state escape hatch? Well, that’s because it doesn’t exist. LePage confused actual law with a proposal introduced earlier this year in the House by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) — chairman of the so-called 10th Amendment Task Force. LePage’s spokesperson explained that the governor-elect was suggesting that if enough states joined the effort, the law would die politically. “His intent was to discuss the concept of broad-based political opposition, rather than a nonexistent statutory or constitutional trigger,” the aide helpfully clarified.

Meanwhile, Maine’s new attorney general — William Schneider — is eager to join the lawsuit — with or without the 35 state rule:

William Schneider, the Durham Republican elected as attorney general by the Legislature on Wednesday, said in an interview that the Affordable Care Act, signed by President Barack Obama in March, violates the U.S. Constitution by requiring people to buy insurance or face an annual fine of $695.

There are no provisions in the constitution that give the federal government that kind of power, he said. Designed to help millions of uninsured Americans obtain affordable health care through government-imposed mandates and subsidies, the law is a “noble effort doomed by its failures,” said Schneider, who currently is an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

The new Maine duo — which possibly rivals Virginia’s conservative tag-team of Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli — is already talking about eliminating Dirigo, the state’s expanded health care program. Once seen as a model for the public option, the initiative will likely be defunded by the Republican-controlled legislature. Currently, 134,700 (or 10%) Maine residents are uninsured.

Meanwhile, the AP reported yesterday that Wisconsin — which elected a Republican governor in the midterms — is also considering joining the multi-state lawsuit, bringing the number of participating states to 22.

Last month, responding to Rep.-elect Andy Harris’ (R-MD) hypocritical demand for government-sponsored benefits, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) began circulating a letter among his Democratic colleagues calling on Harris and other members of Congress who want to repeal the new health care law to forego their own government health care plans. Two incoming Republican freshmen — Rep.-elect Mike Kelly (PA) and Rep.-elect Bobby Schilling (IL) — agreed to the deal immediately and now two others, Reps. Tim Walberg (MI) and Bill Johnson (OH) have also pledged to opt out of the federal employees’ health program:

- TIM WALBERG (R-MI): “Walberg didn’t take the federal plan during his first term in Congress, either. Walberg receives free health-care stemming from his 16-years in the state legislature.”

- BILL JOHNSON (R-OH): “This is one substantial way I can show that my commitment to the people of eastern and southern Ohio is to help them, not to gain exclusive benefits for myself,” he said, in a news release issued by his office. Johnson is not be going to be without health insurance coverage, however. He has health insurance available to him as a retired U.S. Air Force officer.

To be fair, these latter additions are still receiving health benefits from the government. Walberg is drawing on state benefits, while Johnson will be dependent on the military system, which is funded with federal taxes. Kelly and Schilling, meanwhile, will receive employer-sponsored coverage through their businesses.

A Public Policy Polling survey released last month found that most Americans “think incoming Congressmen who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they’re in office.” And having campaigned on listening to the American people, the Republicans seem obliged to abide. As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) put it in a post-election speech at the Heritage Foundation — titled “Listening To The People Who Sent Us Here” — “Republicans have a plan for following through on the wishes of the American people…And, above all, it means listening to the people who sent us here. If we do all this, we will finish the job.”

New members will have 60 days (after being sworn-in) to select an insurance plan from the federal health insurance exchange, which will become available on the first day of the following month. Returning members can “listen” and opt-out of the government-sponsored health insurance coverage before the end of the open-enrollment period, December 13th.

The final details of the one-year doc fix are in and it looks like both parties have agreed to pay for the patch — which would prevent a 25% cut in reimbursement rates to physicians — by taking some money out of the health care law. Here’s how:

Short version is that the ACA specified that if your income rose during the year such that your end of year income was higher than was projected (which is how amount of subsidy/tax credit was figured), then the maximum amount an individual had to pay back to the government was $250 for individual or $400 for family coverage. Now there is a sliding fee scale based on how much your income turns out to be, with much larger pay backs in force. If your income is 200% poverty, you have to repay up to $600, if it is 450-500% of poverty, you have to repay up to $3,500, with sliding scale in between.

The Congressional Budget Office has just released its estimate of the measure here, and while the pay fors are certainly not the kind of “defunding” that Republicans are talking about, it’s hard to escape the fact that Democrats are still taking money out of the law — before most of it even goes into effect.

That is, rather than drawing a line in the sand and refusing to even entertain the suggestion of tampering with their signature legislative accomplishment, the Democrats are setting a precedent that says, ‘yes, there is too much money in the health care law.’ Why one would open that door just as Republicans are gearing up to completely defund the measure, is unclear. After all, Democrats are indicating that they’re willing to compromise on reform and I suspect the GOP will press them to give even further. If the law becomes the go-to pay-for, that doesn’t bode well for the law or its affordability standards.