Via CNS and BuzzFeed, an egregious lie even by the administration’s usual standards for ObamaCare, which is saying something. In fact, this lie, that Sebelius herself never embraced the seven-million figure she’s now trying to pawn off on CBO, was exposed nearly two months ago by one of the biggest papers in the country — and here she is, two months later, still pushing it to try to cover her ass. Quote:

Here’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaking to reporters last June: “We’re hopeful that 7 million is a realistic target.”

And here she is on Sept. 30, in an interview with NBC News: “I think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014.”

Moreover, on Sept. 5, 2013, Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, sent Sebelius a memo titled, “Projected Monthly Enrollment Targets for Health Insurance Marketplaces in 2014.”

The memo offered an estimate of 7,066,000, drawing both on CBO’s estimate and the experience of the universal health plan in Massachusetts, Medicare Part D “and conversations with employers, issuers and states.” It projected that enrollment would be 3.3 million by the end of December.

WaPo gave her just two Pinocchios out of four for distancing herself from the “seven million” figure back in January even though she (a) had adopted that number months earlier and (b) already was (and still is) exaggerating the total number of O-Care sign-ups by refusing to say how many are facing cancellation due to not having paid their first month’s premium. By most estimates, that number is in the ballpark of 20 percent. If that trend continues all the way to the March 31st deadline, hitting the magic “seven million” number would mean that the official numbers were padded with more than a million busted enrollments.

Three clips for you, in order: Today’s big lie; Sebelius telling NBC on September 30th of last year that seven million is the target; and then, just for fun, Jay Carney trying to spin his way out of this clusterfark last month. Note that September 30, 2013 was literally the eve of ObamaCare’s launch. Up until the very last minute, when she knew (or certainly should have known) that the website was a disaster in the making and would be hobbled for weeks or months, she passed on an easy opportunity to set expectations for enrollment much lower. Sheesh.