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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AFF Targets 18 House Districts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, March 8, 2010
Contact: Jill Latham (515) 720-5250
AFF Launches TV Ad Campaign Targeting 18 Congressional Districts Across the Country
The ad asks congress to start over on health care legislation
Des Moines, IA—Today, American Future Fund launched a TV ad campaign targeting 18 Congressional Districts across the country. The ad asks Congress to start over on health care legislation.
AFF President Sandy Greiner said, “During the 2008 election, President Obama made news in the last campaign when he said if you put lipstick on a pig– it’s still a pig. Mr. President, we agree with you.”
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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Watch AFF’s Interviews from CPAC 2010
AFF Launches National TV and Print Ad Campaign Surrounding Healthcare Summit
Ad notes you can’t dress up a bad bill
Des Moines, IA– American Future Fund today released a new national television and print ad campaign leading up to the healthcare summit at the White House.
AFF President Sandy Greiner said, “President Obama and the liberals in Congress refuse to listen to the American people. It’s clear this summit is nothing more than a public relations sham for the liberals to try and sell their same bad bill with a different name.”
AFF’s television ad will air nationwide on cable television over the course of this week. (Television script and link to the ad are below)
Print ads have been placed as well. (Link to the print ads are below)
Greiner continued, “President Obama made news in the last campaign when he said if you put lipstick on a pig– it’s still a pig. Mr. President, you’re right.”
View AFF’s Latest Ad in the Politico
Up Next! On Live TV! A Battle Over … Health Care?
When he jousts with Congressional Republicans over health care policy during a televised meeting on Thursday, President Obama will seek to portray his adversaries as sharing many of the broad goals of his legislation and also strive to unify Congressional Democrats to press ahead and adopt a bill, senior White House officials and leading Democrats say.
But Mr. Obama, top White House advisers and Congressional leaders of both parties are under no illusion that the meeting will resolve more than a half-century of disagreements over health care policy. Instead, Democrats say, they hope the event will create a climate that helps revive their legislation in Congress and prove to the American public that they are willing to hear out Republicans and even adopt their ideas.
“We may not be able to resolve all the disagreements, but we ought to be able to thrash out areas of broad agreement,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser. “The fact is, there are broad areas of agreement on elements of this, and hopefully that will become apparent here.”
Mr. Axelrod added, “Sitting side by side working through these issues is better than not sitting side by side and dealing with distortions.”
Republican leaders have not yet committed to attending the session and have said they doubt the sincerity of Mr. Obama’s bipartisan overtures, given his refusal to discard the Democrats’ legislation and start over. But senior Republican aides said that party leaders planned to participate and that a chief goal would be to portray the president as defying the will of the American people if he continues pushing for an expansive and expensive bill.
The meeting is fraught with risk, and also offers potential rewards, for each side.
White House officials said that by Monday they would unveil Mr. Obama’s own comprehensive proposal, focused on uniting Democrats who spent much of the past year deeply divided on many points. Administration officials and Congressional Democrats have expressed hopes that the meeting will help generate support for a plan to attach health care legislation to a budget bill, which would prevent a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
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Unions and liberal groups blast Reid’s $15 billion jobs bill as ‘puny’
Unions and liberal groups have dismissed Sen. Harry Reid’s $15 billion jobs bill as “puny” while calling for larger stimulus measures.
More than two dozen organizations, including the AFL-CIO, National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) and National Council of La Raza, warned Democratic leaders in Congress to avoid tackling the troubled economy through incremental action.
They urged the Senate to pass the $15 billion jobs measure, which features a hiring tax cut for small businesses, but called for much more legislation to bring down an unemployment rate the White House projects to average 10 percent this year, more than 9 percent next year and over 8 percent in 2012.
“If this $15 billion was the only thing [that passed], that would be like having an amputated arm and sticking a Band-Aid on the end of it,” said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, on a conference call Friday.
Lawrence Mishel, head of the union-backed Economic Policy Institute think tank, described the $15 billion bill being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as “small, puny.”
In addition to the $13 billion hiring tax credit, Reid’s bill includes money to extend the federal trust fund for highway and other transportation projects, a tax break allowing businesses to write off losses from depreciating equipment and bonds for state and local government infrastructure projects. Reid has set up a Monday procedural vote to bring the bill up for debate, and Democrats hope to pass it later next week.
The left-leaning coalition is proposing its own jobs package that goes beyond the House Democrats’ $154 billion jobs bill, which passed without House Republican votes in December.
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CPAC Organizers Try to Turn Up Hip Quotient With Video Games, Rap
Organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference are taking pains this year to gear their summit toward students and the under-30 crowd, offering a slew of new media workshops and an entertainment lineup befitting a college campus.
Here’s the vision for this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference: Outside, Lou Dobbs is waxing cranky on the country’s economic decline. Inside, the hip crowd will be playing video games, watching movies, eating snacks and listening to rap music.
In a bid to make conservative chic, organizers of the annual meet-up of Republican Party faithful and right-wing firebrands are taking pains this year to gear their summit toward students and the under-30 crowd. Added to the menu are a slew of new media workshops and an entertainment lineup befitting a college campus.
Organizers say the conference, which kicks off Thursday in Washington, has had a large college-age contingent for years now. But they are making an extra push to attract and entertain that crowd with youth-oriented talks and the addition of something called the XPAC Lounge — a room one organizer dubbed the “hub of fun.”
That’s where the video games and the junk food will be.
“We’re gonna have the most popular games. There’ll be Guitar Hero. There’ll be Dance Revolution. There’ll be Call of Duty,” said Kevin McCullough, the radio host who created the XPAC Lounge with actor Stephen Baldwin.
There’ll be a distinct conservative component, no doubt. Icons of the right like Ann Coulter and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele are expected to speak there and work the room.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody of Joe-the-Plumber stature came in three times a day to come in and rally the kids,” CPAC spokesman Ian Walters said.
But organizers are putting a premium on the fun factor. The lounge will be equipped with Nintendo Wii and Xbox, McCullough said. It will feature about 10 video game stations, two with seven-foot screens. “Old school” games like air hockey and foosball will also be on hand.
It will be the scene of a late-night “rap/jam session” on Thursday and a conservative comedy lineup on Friday. FoxNews.com’s Strategy Room will also be broadcasting from the XPAC Lounge.
McCullough said organizers wanted to give younger conference-goers, who can buy a three-day lounge ticket for $20, a place to hang while the older crowd attends the high-priced nightly dinners. Plus, he said, conservatives are trying to attract more young activists and replicate the kind of success President Obama had in winning over young supporters in 2008.
“We think that same thing can happen for people who are right of center,” he said. “More than anything, that generation simply needs a pat on the back and the encouragement of, ‘We believe in you.’”
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