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Mike Pence does not get a lot of respect around the Trump White House. The vice president went around defending national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was under investigation for meeting secretly with Russian officials, and no one in the presidents inner circle bothered to tell Pence that he was making a fool of himself. Indeed, according to a Politico report, Pence only learned he had been misled by national security adviser Michael Flynn after the Washington Post reported on Feb. 9 that Flynn had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador

Thats embarrassing.

But it is also instructive.

When it comes to making things happen in Donald Trumps Washington, Pence does not matter much. He literally does not know what is going on.

Pence confirmed that in Janesville last week, when he announced that the American people know Obamacare has failed and Obamacare must go.

The vice president was spreading fake news.

The real news was found in the headlines that appeared in the weeks before the vice president arrived in Janesville:

NBC News (Jan. 17): As GOP pushes repeal, Obamacare has never been more popular

CNBC (Jan. 20): New poll shows Obamacare is more popular than Donald Trump

Business Insider (Feb. 2): Obamacare getting more popular

Politico (Feb. 22): Support for Obamacare is rising

CNN (Feb. 24): Support for Obamacare at all-time high

The Hill (Feb. 27): More than 6 in 10 oppose Obamacare repeal

Poll after poll after poll has indicated that the popularity of the Affordable Care Act is rising.

The current polling from the Pew Research Center finds that 54 percent of Americans approve of the ACA, while 43 percent oppose it. That, reported CNN, is the highest level of support for the health care reform measure ever recorded by Pew. The latest polling data from the Kaiser Family Foundation find the highest level of favorability measured in more than 60 Kaiser Health Tracking Polls conducted since 2010.

Polling data fluctuate. But here is the interesting twist: Surveys frequently show that, among those who favor altering the ACA, most want it to be made stronger not weaker, as Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, propose.

A new McClatchy/Marist survey, released a few days before Pence came to appear with Ryan in Janesville, found that 65 percent of Americans would like to see portions of the Affordable Care Act retained. According to Washingtons The Hill newspaper, Twenty percent say lawmakers should let the health care law stand as is, while 38 percent want any changes to enable it to do more and 7 percent hope alterations make it capable of less.

Only 31 percent supported complete repeal.

Why would Pence peddle the fantasy that Americans despise the ACA when that is clearly not the case?

Perhaps he is again being misled.

Perhaps he has fallen for the falsehoods that are advanced by insurance-industry lobbyists and career politicians like Paul Ryan who simply say what their campaign donors want them to say.

Whatever the excuse, Pence is wrong.

And no one in Wisconsin should take him any more seriously than do the people who are running things in the White House.

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Editorial: Mike Pence peddles fake news in Janesville - Madison.com