McConnell Blasts Obama & HHS For Spending $20 Million To Promote Obamacare

Today in Washington, D.C. - May 23, 2012:
The House is in Recess.
The Senate resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 3187, a bill concerning FDA user fees. At 12:30 the Senate will agree to the motion to proceed to S. 3187 and to the Harkin-Enzi substitute amendment to the bill by unanimous consent. If an agreement is reached on which amendments to the bill will be voted on, voting could begin this afternoon.

Recalling The Truth From Nov. 2009
Toon By William Warren

Discussing reports yesterday that “[t]he Health and Human Services Department has signed a $20 million contract with a public-relations firm to highlight part of the Affordable Care Act,” This morning Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell from the floor of the Senate floor blasted the Obama administration for spending taxpayer money to promote legislation most Americans disapprove of.

“While the President and his surrogates spend most of their time deflecting attention from his record, he’s got Washington bureaucrats working overtime to put a good face on it.

I mentioned yesterday that the administration is spending yet another $20 million in taxpayer money to promote a health care bill that most Americans want to see repealed.

“There’s a pattern here that I, and I’m sure many other Americans find pretty outrageous at a time of trillion dollar deficits and a near $16 trillion debt. The administration also spent more than $25 million in Stimulus funds on grants to a public relations firm, ostensibly to do public relations related to promoting the Stimulus. It spent nearly $20 million on mailings to seniors to tout Obamacare — a mailer, by the way, that the Government Accountability Office found overstated the law’s benefits. Millions more in taxpayer funds were spent on postcards that promoted Obamacare’s small business tax credit – a credit that the GAO said was ineffective and infrequently used.”

That’s not all. HHS emails reveal that the Obama administration spent at least $1.9 million on an online campaign for their healthcare.gov website. The Heritage Foundation described that campaign yesterday: “The Obama HHS launched a campaign to track Internet searches and to use online search engines such as Google and Yahoo to drive traffic to a government website promoting Obama’s health care overhaul.” And in 2010, over $3 million in government funds was spent on misleading Medicare ads trying to promote aspects of Obamacare. Also that year, The Washington Post reported that the HHS Department sent mailers to “40 million Medicare beneficiaries” touting Obamacare. Of course, those claims were flatly at odds with the analysis of Medicare’s own chief actuary.

As Sen. McConnell said, “[T]he larger point is the fact that we’ve got a nearly $16 trillion debt, the largest tax hike in history right around the corner, chronic unemployment, and sky high gas prices, and this President thinks it’s a good idea to spend $20 million to promote Obamacare. We don’t have the money to begin with, and he’s spending it to market his policies? The President needs to face facts. Americans don’t want him spending their hard-earned money trying to spin policies they don’t like.”

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