Harry Reid Torches Koch-Fueled 'Lies' About Obamacare

[ProSense]

Harry Reid Torches Koch-Fueled 'Lies' About Obamacare

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday excoriated the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, for an ad by their organization aimed at undercutting Obamacare.

"The leukemia patient whose insurance policy was canceled who could die without her medication -- that's an ad being paid for by two billionaire brothers. It's absolutely false," he said on the Senate floor. "We heard about the evils of Obamacare, about the lives it's ruining. ... But those tales turned out to be just that: tales, stories made up from whole cloth, lies distorted by the Republicans to grab headlines (by) forming political advertisements."

The ad he's referring to, by the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity, features a leukemia patient named Julie Boonstra who says she lost her insurance due to Obamacare and is facing soaring out-of-pocket costs. As fact-checkers have pointed out, her claim doesn't quite add up. Obamacare has lowered Boonstra's premiums, as she admits, and it caps patients' out-of-pocket expenses in a way that makes her likelier to save money.

"The Koch brothers are spending hundreds of millions of dollars telling Americans that obamacare is bad for them," Reid said. "It's easy to do if you have no conscience and are willing to lie, like they are, through the ads that they're promoting. But the Kochs should stick to what they know: the oil business."

- more -

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harry-reid-koch-lies-obamacare

[ProSense]

1. Koch brothers use Republican activists in latest anti-Obamacare ads

Koch brothers use Republican activists in latest anti-Obamacare ads

by Joan McCarter

In Louisiana, the Koch brother's Americans for Prosperity was blasted for running anti-Obamacare ads featuring paid actors to play Louisiana residents telling "their" stories about how Obamacare had harmed them. After being called out for that, AFP apparently decided they'd better start using real people. So, in New Harmpshire their ads are doing just that. Real people who also happen to be Republican activists.

The real people AFP found are Donna Marzullo and Helen DePrima. In one of the ads, Marzullo laments the loss of her existing plan, focusing on the unfortunate "you can keep your plan" promise made by President Obama. DePrima says she lost her secondary health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act, and that her cost for prescription drugs increased. Who are these women?

Marzullo is married to the vice chairman of the New Hampshire GOP, J.P. Marzullo, and is herself the vice chair of the Contoocook Valley Republican Committee. She was also a member of former Rep. Charlie Bass' (R-N.H.) Women's Coalition.

DePrima has participated in events for Republican activists in New Hampshire as well, and she even called for Obamacare's repeal shortly after the Supreme Court upheld it in June 2012. "By exposing it as a tax, [Supreme Court Chief Justice John] Roberts made it easier to limit or repeal. Brilliant," DePrima wrote on Facebook at the time. In August 2013, she attended a fundraiser for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is perhaps the most vocal critic of the health care law in Washington.

Beyond the obvious fact that these women are not representatives of the general public and their concerns about the new law, there's the usual lack of key details and stretched truths contained in the ads, detailed by Granite State Progressive. Like the fact that DePrima is probably covered by Medicare, and that she states in the ad "some of my medications may not be covered" without actually saying that some of her medications are not covered. Or, in the case of Marzullo, that the current plan she says she lost is actually in effect until November, 2014. She says she's not sure if she can go to the doctor or hospital of her choice under Obamacare, but in reality she doesn't know that yet—she hasn't yet chosen a plan under the new law.

Once again, AFP is putting out half-baked half-truths, and attacking those who question the claims made in their ads for being callous toward the women (notice how they're always women?) who are just expressing their concerns about the law, and trying to bully them into silence. Never mind the facts, they've got truthiness.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/25/1280254/-Koch-brothers-use-Republican-activists-in-latest-anti-Obamacare-nbsp-ads

Spending their billions to lie.

[freshwest]

2. Give 'em hell, Harry! K&R!

[ProSense]

3. Kick! n/t

[panader0]

4. Wow! Go Harry!

It's great to see him call them out by name. He is turning over a rock.

[sheshe2]

5. K&R, for Harry Reid! nt