Mark Levin, who likes Rand Paul, regularly defends Rand Paul, and has him on his show frequently, says it now appears that Rand Paul, at the behest of Paul's close ally Mitch McConnell, is actively trying to cover up Obamacare fraud on Capitol Hill.

In order to get small business subsidies under Obamacare, someone in Congress submitted an application claiming that Congress, the entire Congress, only had 45 employees, so it could qualify. This was obviously fraudulent. David Vitter tried to get to the bottom of this by asking for subpoena power to find out who submitted this application, but he was blocked by the other Democrats... and Rand Paul.

With nine Democrats on the committee lined up against the proposal [for the subpoena], the chairman needed the support of all ten Republicans to issue the subpoena. But, though it seems an issue tailor-made for the tea-party star and Republican presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) refused to lend his support. And when the Louisiana senator set a public vote for April 23, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies got involved. “For whatever reason, leadership decided they wanted that vote to be 5–5, all Republicans, to give Senator Paul cover,” one high-ranking committee staffer tells National Review. “So they worked at a member level to change the votes of otherwise supportive senators.” Four Republicans — senators Mike Enzi, James Risch, Kelly Ayotte, and Deb Fischer — had promised to support Vitter, but that would soon change.

Senate staffers, according to a top committee aide, reported seeing Missouri senator Roy Blunt make calls to at least two Republican committee members, lobbying them, at McConnell’s behest, to vote no on subpoenaing the exchange. By the time the committee was called to quorum, Enzi, Risch, Ayotte, and Fischer voted no.

Senior committee aides say that Rand Paul’s staff didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail requesting the senator’s consent and, when they did, they refused to provide it. When Vitter attempted to set up a member-to-member meeting, his overtures were ignored or put off. Paul’s policy staff refused to take a meeting. When Vitter tried to confront Paul on the Senate floor, they say, the Kentucky senator skirted the issue.

It wasn’t until after the vote that Paul shared his reasoning. “Senator Paul opposes allowing Congress to exempt themselves from any legislation,” an aide told the Conservative Review. “To that end, yesterday, he reintroduced his proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit Congress from passing any law that exempts themselves. Senator Paul prefers this option over a partisan cross-examination of Congressional staff.”

But a constitutional amendment is a longshot that would take years, and it hardly precluded an investigation of congressional corruption here and now.

That's correct. Rand Paul considers an investigation into fraud something to be avoided because it he says it would be "partisan cross-examination." What a lame answer! He's part of the coverup. There's no good reason for him to have opposed this, but there are plenty of bad ones. Mark Levin speculated that perhaps "someone" is being blackmailed, but he didn't say who.

The only thing that surprises me about this is if any of you reading this are surprised about this.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.