AFF Runs 5 Page Ad in Politico Highlighting Liberals Reckless Run Toward Government-run Health Care
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Contact: Jill Latham (515) 720-5250
Print ads serve as a reminder that AFF members will not give up until Congress starts over on health care
Des Moines, IA—Today, AFF is running a series of 5 conservative print ads in POLITICO speaking out against pending health care legislation and reminding Members what will happen to them if they vote for more tax and spend legislation. The ads include 4 that have previously run in POLITICO, and one new ad titled “Losers of 2010.”
AFF President Sandy Greiner stated, “Our ads tell a story. A story that did not end well for 54 members of Congress in 1994, and it will be the same ending for many liberal members if they continue to ignore the will of the American people by supporting government-run health care. A majority of Americans want Congress to start over on health care legislation and Members of Congress should start listening or else polish up their resumes.”
Heated Health-Reform Ads Give Taste of Fall Campaign
By: Michael Scherer/Washington, TIME
Congressman Adam Smith’s phones rang so much on Monday that one of his aides called it a “siege.” Almost all the calls were about health care, and most of his constituents’ opinions were the same. “In my case, it’s very one-sided,” says Smith, a Washington state Democrat. “It’s all been on the anti side.”
The reason for the calls is no secret. National business groups have blanketed Tacoma television stations with a 30-second spot that features depressing images of discouraged workers and a voice-over warning that health care reform will bring billions in new taxes, mandates on businesses and higher health care costs. At the end, Smith’s phone number flashes across the screen. “It’s a pretty thorough buy,” Smith admits, saying it has sometimes run three or four times on a single station in an hour.
The deluge is not limited to Smith’s district. Across the country, groups on all sides of the health care reform debate have been targeting swing members of Congress with costly ad campaigns. Over the coming week, as the House gears up to take a final, deciding vote on reform, issue-ad spending by corporations, trade groups, unions and advocacy organizations may top $24 million, adding to the estimated $200 million that has already been spent on health care advocacy ads. “We are going to be at parity with the other guys in spending for the week,” said one pro-reform organizer, who had been monitoring the antireform ad purchases. “I think our side will spend $12 million for the week.”
The ad running in Smith’s district, which was paid for by an offshoot of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is part of a 17-state campaign slated to cost between $4 million and $10 million. Another conservative group, the American Future Fund, is running ads in 18 House districts that compares health care reform to a pig wearing lipstick before flashing a phone number. America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry trade group, has its own television campaign. Another secretive group called the League of American Voters, which works with former Clinton adviser Dick Morris, is running additional ads targeting Democrats who may support “Obama and Pelosi’s health care takeover.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1972364,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0iLl3kZne
ObamaCare and the ‘Buzzsaw’ of Opposition
By: John Boehner and Mitch McConnell
The president could have chosen a bipartisan approach.
A little over a year ago, when President Obama first took up health-care reform, Republicans reached out to him in the hopes of working together on solutions that would lower health-care costs for families and small businesses. A bipartisan bill focused on lower costs could have been sent to the president’s desk last year, and it would have received the support of the American people.
For instance, this month the president announced his support for additional reforms to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid. This is something we can and should be doing already.
Click here to continue reading.
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.
Click here to read more.
View AFF’s Latest TV Ads Targeting Sens. Reid, Specter
AFF Launches TV Ad in Pennsylvania Targeting Senator Specter
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.
Click here to read more.
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.
Click here to read more.
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.
To continue reading, click here
