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A new wave of health ads hits radio, TV
By: Fredreka Schouten, USA Today
A conservative group, The American Future Fund, has launched TV ads against two Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for voicing support for a legislative procedure, known as reconciliation, to pass parts of the health care legislation.
The group is urging Democrats to scrap the health care plan and start over.
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Health care ad spending grows; will it matter?
By: Chris Cillizza, Washington Post
1. The air wars over health care, into which both sides have already poured more than $200 million, are in full swing again. The latest evidence? American Future Fund, a conservative group, is spending $500,000 bashing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter for their expressed support for using reconciliation to pass elements of the health care bill.
The ads cast reconciliation as a “legislative trick” being employed by Democratic senators because “they don’t have the votes;” the ad also uses clips of Democrats defending the filibuster — Reid described it as “a check on power [that] preserves our limited government” — when they were the minority party in the Senate. “The hypocrisy is breathtaking,” says the narrator at the close of the commercial. (AFF is already spending close to $1 million on ads in 18 Democratic-held House districts urging Members to scrap the bill and start over.)
Not to be outdone, Americans United, the leading spender of liberal outside groups, is plunking down a half million dollars on a series of television and radio ads on aimed at rallying African Americans behind President Obama’s plan. “The special interests are marshaling their forces for one last fight to save the status quo,” Obama says in the Americans United TV ad, which is running on Black Entertainment Television. “And we just can’t let that happen.” A similar message is being broadcast via radio ads to African American voters in 19 cities including Cleveland, Chicago and Louisville.
These ads — from the left and right — come on top of a promised $10 million in ads by a coalition of business groups to oppose the health care legislation. But It’s hard to see this strategy having any significant impact in the fight for public opinion on health care; a flooding of airwaves with political ads usually leads people to tune out all of the commercials — a phenomenon likely exacerbated by the pure length of time that health care has been in the news. ALSO READ: Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen on why passing (or not passing) health care will be a major political problem for their party.
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AFF Launches TV Ad in Nevada Targeting Senator Reid
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 11, 2010
Contact: Jill Latham (515) 720-5250
Ad exposes hypocrisy Harry Reid is using to push government-run health care
Des Moines, IA—Today, American Future Fund launched a TV ad in Nevada exposing the backroom deals and “Senate tricks” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is using to push government-run health care through the U.S. Senate.
AFF President Sandy Greiner stated, “These are the same tactics Harry Reid and other Democrat leaders like Vice President Biden and President Obama blasted their opponents for using just a few years ago. It’s clear the American people want no part of this, so it’s time to start over on healthcare legislation and get it right.”
AFF’s TV Ad Featured on Roll Call
he American Future Fund, a conservative advocacy group, has placed a new $250,000 television ad buy targeting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over Democrats’ procedural maneuvering on the health care bill.
The 60-second spot, airing statewide on network and cable television starting Thursday night, comes as Republicans step up their rhetoric opposing Senate Democrats’ plans to pass a controversial health care overhaul via reconciliation.
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Pro-life Dems say Senate Health Care Bill is D.O.A.
The health care reform bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve appears to be dead on arrival in the House, as six anti-abortion Democrats intend to join the ranks of lawmakers who plan to vote against the legislation, Fox News has confirmed.
Six new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.
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Government workers feel no economic pain
The recession and the ongoing jobless recovery devastated much of the private-sector work force last year, sending unemployment soaring, but government workers emerged essentially unscathed, according to data released Wednesday by the Labor Department.
Meanwhile, the compensation for state and local government employees continued to easily outdistance the wages and benefits for workers in private business, a separate Labor Department report showed.
Private-industry employers spent an average of $27.42 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December, while total compensation costs for state and local government workers averaged $39.60 per hour.
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More than 55% believe ObamaCare will damage economy
The White House promised a “hard pivot” to jobs and the economy almost three months ago, attempting to put the ObamaCare debate on the back burner after the holidays. They had belatedly discovered that the electorate was much more concerned about the economic plunge than in retooling a health-care system that works for most Americans now. Instead of the hard pivot, Democrats have doubled down on ObamaCare — and the latest Rasmussen survey shows that a strong majority believe it to be the wrong direction on both issues:
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters say the health care reform plan now working its way through Congress will hurt the U.S. economy.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 25% think the plan will help the economy. But only seven percent (7%) say it will have no impact. Twelve percent (12%) aren’t sure.
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The health care campaign begins (again)
By: Chris Cillizza, Washington Post
1. With President Obama’s March 18 deadline to pass health care reform through Congress rapidly approaching, the American Future Fund, a conservative outside group, is spending $900,000 on television ads in 18 Democratic-held districts calling on members to scrap the current plan. The ads decry the “massive spending” and “backroom deals” including the now infamous “Cornhusker Kickback” in the legislation and quote President Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” comments during the campaign. “Tell Congress to start over and get health care right,” says the ad’s narrator.
The districts that AFF is targeting include: Arizona’s 1st, Arizona’s 5th, Arizona’s 8th, Indiana’s 2nd, Indiana’s 8th, Indiana’s 9th, North Carolina’s 2nd, North Dakota at large, Nevada’s 3rd, New York’s 24th, Ohio’s 1st, Ohio’s 6th, Ohio’s 13th, Pennsylvania’s 3rd, Pennsylvania’s 10th, Wisconsin’s 8th, West Virginia’s 1st and West Virginia’s 3rd. All 18 Democratic members targeted voted for the health care bill when it passed the House last November; eleven of the 18 districts went for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008. (McCain carried 49 total districts currently represented by Democrats.) The AFF ads are almost certainly the leading edge of a cavalcade of spending by independent groups — both conservative and liberal — in the run-up to the vote.
ALSO CLICK: Saturday Night Live’s take on the politics of the health care vote.
2. Former Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) is moving toward a rematch against Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) this fall, according to those familiar with his thinking on the race. Ehrlich is widely seen as the only Republican who could win statewide in Maryland, having already done so once — when he beat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in the 2002 governor’s race.
Former Ehrlich aides are beginning to build the foundation for his campaign, according to sources familiar with the effort. A recent poll released by O’Malley’s campaign — conducted by Fred Yang — that showed the governor ahead of Ehrlich by a 51 percent to 41 percent margin. (O’Malley beat Ehrlich 53 percent to 46 percent in 2006.)
In expectation of Ehrlich’s candidacy, political handicapper Stu Rothenberg moved from the race from safe for O’Malley to only a “narrow advantage” for the Democrat.
3. Former Genesee County treasurer Dan Kildee dropped out of the Michigan governor’s race just two weeks after getting into the contest, the latest Democrat to end a candidacy for the state’s top office. Kildee’s exit from the race follows similar no-go decisions by Lt. Gov. John Cherry, University of Michigan Regent Denise Ilitch and former state treasurer Bob Bowman; Ilitch and Bowman were both eyed by national Democratic recruiters under the belief that their personal wealth and outsider profile could give the party a chance to hold what is a very difficult seat
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Dissecting the Real Cost of ObamaCare
The following are remarks made by Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, about the cost of the House and Senate health-care bills at President Obama’s Blair House summit on health care, Feb. 25:
Look, we agree on the problem here. And the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff.
Mr. President, you said health-care reform is budget reform. You’re right. We agree with that. Medicare, right now, has a $38 trillion unfunded liability. That’s $38 trillion in empty promises to my parents’ generation, our generation, our kids’ generation.
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View AFF’s Latest Ad in the Politico
