Morning Plum: How the GOP’s ‘Obamacare horror stories’ strategy works

[applegrove]

Morning Plum: How the GOP’s ‘Obamacare horror stories’ strategy works

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/02/20/morning-plum-how-the-gops-obamacare-horror-stories-strategy-works/?tid=rssfeed

"SNIP.....................................



Now checking the facts in a story about an Obamacare victim broadcast by a group whose sole goal is to shift control of the Senate and repeal the law constitutes telling her to quit complaining about her terminal illness. This is essentially a declaration that the emotional content of these victims’ stories should shield such ads from scrutiny designed to determine whether they actually tell the broader tale about Obamacare its broadcasters claim they do. Meanwhile, when proponents cite people who benefit from the law, it is nothing but “neat and tidy” White House propaganda.

This is a useful marker in the broader debate. AFP has already run an ad in Louisiana featuring Obamacare victims played by actors, even as the group is aggressively pressuring state legislators there not to expand Medicaid coverage to untold numbers of real people who would benefit from it. Meanwhile, Obamacare foes hyped the CBO report as proof two million victims would be thrown out of work, but it actually found those not working as a result of the law would be doing so by choice, and may be better off, a fact Republicans have simply airbrushed out of the picture. And Bette in Spokane was featured in the GOP response to the State of the Union as another Obamacare victim, but in fact she hadn’t availed herself of Obamacare’s options, and it remains unknown whether her GOP Congresswoman even tried to help her to do so.

The broader GOP strategy is explicitly all about building a national narrative populated only with wrenching horror stories — people who have lost coverage and seen premiums soar, and, now, desperately ill people who have seen their lives disrupted — thanks to the heavy handed big government recklessness all these Dems stand for. In this narrative, people who have had their lives improved by the law and are now enjoying health coverage for the first time — and the security and peace of mind that accompany it — simply don’t exist, and indeed, Republicans have actively discouraged such stories from coming into being. Meanwhile, many of the horror stories are turning out to be hyped, bogus, or distorted. But they will have huge sums of money behind them. And scrutiny of them will be met with charges of insensitivity to the victims. Just in case you didn’t grasp the magnitude of the stakes here.


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[Thinkingabout]

1. I was listening to Dan Patrick R-TX running for lt governor, he claims to have saved 15,000

Lived with his sonogram bill. I wrote him last week about the failure of Texas setting up health care
exchanges with ACA. We have more uninsured in Texas than any other state. How can he deliver a message about saving 15,000 lives while not getting healthcare exchanges. It is he wants forced births but then refuse the healthcare they need after birth. Never have liked him and now he has given me another reason.