Posted on 02/10/2014 6:27:36 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Republicans focused on winning back the Senate have a clear goal this year: convincing voters that vulnerable Democrats are liars.
In races from Alaska to North Carolina, GOP strategists are attacking Democrats who echoed Obama’s promises that everyone could keep their health care plan. The Republican argument is that politicians lied to voters when they passed the law — and they are throwing Democrats’ past quotes back in their faces to prove it.
In their eyes, every senator is the 60th vote that helped pass the 2010 legislation, and every Democrat is personally liable for health care failures.
“We’re talking about the broken promises in ObamaCare,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen. “So many of the promises they’ve made have turned out to be false.”
The goal is to erode voters’ trust in respected members, not just hit them on the law’s problems.
Many of the Senate Democrats facing tough reelection battles have won in the past despite their state’s GOP lean because they have been able to rely on their personal popularity and well-known brands.
These Democrats’ coalitions depend on winning voters who trust they are doing what they believe is right, even if they disagree with them on some policies, or have little fondness for their party at the national level. If red-state senators like Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) lose that trust, they’re likely to lose their seats.
One way Republicans are looking to reinforce that idea is continuing to brand Democrats alongside the president for the law’s shortcomings. Voters can expect to hear a lot about BegichCare, HaganCare or PryorCare this year.
“New Report: BegichCare is a Job Killer,” Alaska Senate candidate Dan Sullivan (R) trumpeted in a press release last week.
“Millions of Americans could lose their jobs because of Mark Begich,” Sullivan continued. “Not only did he cast the deciding vote for ObamaCare, but he along with President Obama repeatedly misled Alaskans by promising them they could keep their healthcare plan under the disastrous law.”
Hougesen said that while Obama-Care is a major bullet in the chamber, other shots will be fired at Senate Democrats’ trustworthiness.
“They have a credibility problem that has been exposed by multiple broken promises about ObamaCare. That credibility problem goes beyond the unpopular health care law, it expands to broken promises about the economy, about independence from a very unpopular president,” she said.
“Once the case is laid out, voters will have a difficult time believing anything that Mary Landrieu, Kay Hagan, or Mark Begich say.”
Chipping away at that trust has been a major focus of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative group backed by the Koch brothers that has been dumping millions of dollars into Senate races across the country.
Many of AFP’s ads have included Democrats echoing President Obama’s promise that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” — and PolitiFact’s designation that it was 2013’s “Lie of the Year.” A number feature individuals who lost coverage and are residents of the states in question. They attack the Democrats who voted for the healthcare law as untrustworthy.
One AFP ad running in Louisiana shows Obama promising people would be able to keep their plans, and Landrieu echoing Obama’s remarks. “Now, Louisianans are finding out that they lied,” the ad says.
Other ads are targeted toward a crucial voting demographic, featuring women accusing the senators of misleading them.
“Kay Hagan told us if you liked your insurance plan and your doctors you could keep them. That just wasn’t true,” a woman says in an AFP ad that is running in North Carolina.
“I trusted the president and Senator Begich. Lots of promises were made to pass ObamaCare. They knew the real truth,” says a woman in an AFP ad hitting Begich that came out late last year. “How can I ever trust him again?”
Democrats say Republicans are following the same plan that led them to missing out on a Senate majority in 2010 and 2012: a near-exclusive focus on ObamaCare with little else.
In 2010, anger against ObamaCare helped fuel the GOP takeover of the House, but Democrats won a number of competitive Senate races despite the national climate. This year, Republicans need to pick up six seats to win control of the upper chamber, and with a difficult map for Democrats that runs through red states, they think their silver bullet will be more effective.
But Democrats insist too much emphasis on the issue is risky, especially as problems with the law’s implementation are getting fixed and they can tout benefits people are getting from the law.
“They think they can ride to the majority on a one-trick pony... They were cookie-cutter ads last time, just like they are today,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Canter said.
“We’re going to define a contrast between them and their opponent. Each of our candidates are articulating how they put the interests of their constituents and their states ahead of the national party when it comes to key economic priorities.”
Democrats have also been responding by touting their own frustration with the ObamaCare rollout — Landrieu ran an ad featuring her anger at Obama for breaking his promise and pushing for changes to the law — and by pivoting to attacks on the GOP over healthcare.
“The Landrieu ad clearly communicated her frustration about this and showed what she was doing to address the problem and fix the issue,” said one Democratic strategist.
Pryor’s newest ads attack Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for his Medicare views, hitting him for his support of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) plan to dramatically change the program.
Other Democrats say that the red-state senators need to show they are as frustrated with ObamaCare’s problems as the voters, but stress that the flawed law is better than full repeal.
“It is important for Democrats to convey that they too are disappointed and frustrated about what happened but then remind people of why we did health care reform in the first place,” said one national strategist. “It’s about establishing that baseline of credibility with voters that are also frustrated and then reminding them why this is important and what it would mean if Republicans repeal the law.”
Republicans say the strategy to undercut Democrats’ credibility with Obama-Care is a key part of their plan, and that the recent CBO report that the law will lead to fewer full-time workers is adding fuel to their fire. North Carolina GOP candidate Thom Tillis is already using the report in a web video.
Public polling shows that Obama-Care is unpopular, but that voters want to fix rather than repeal it. A recent poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found 50 percent of Americans hold a negative view of the law, with 34 percent approving of it — but it also indicated that 55 percent say it should be improved, while only 38 percent want it repealed.
Privately, even Republicans admit that focusing too much on the law is a risk.
“It’s our job to point out how Mark Begich and the other Democrats have broken that trust. And if we don’t do that correctly, shame on us,” said one Republican strategist working on a few Senate races.
“But ObamaCare only gets you so far. Nationally that is the challenge for Tom Cotton or Tillis — they’re going to have to find those other issues to show a repeated pattern of lies of their incumbents.”
Good, Dems have done this effectively to Republicans time after time.
wow, what a weasel-y writer. If asked, I’d say the law needed improvement. And if asked, I’d say get rid of it. This is classic, “polls say what progressives want them to say.”
That's pretty easy because they are.
Sow distrust?
The clueless Obamadork and his felon minions defined the word.
It is to the great shame of our education system that folks such as the dork...and you MSM idiots...are allowed to do more than pump gas and wipe dog butts.
CW-II is coming...and I sincerely hope that all have your addresses.
Oops, anger rules over spelling. That’s “sew”, not “sow”.
Wanna make something of it?
The Stupid Party has a giant wedge they can use and they are too stupid to use it.
President Liar LIED about Obamacare and what it would do, and yet they keep on implementing it.... wtf???
Sow is correct - not sew
See how they do this?
Democrats lie, cheat, and steal and the corrupt MSM is silent, because “they mean well”. Bill O’Reilly says of Obama, “His heart is in the right place.” And that makes everything good.
Now, when Republicans call out Democrats on their record the corrupt MSM writes an article, like this one, slamming Republicans in a backhanded way by sliming them as being dirty politicians simply trying to take partisan advantage of Democrats who mean well and just had to lie to you to get Obamacare.
Democrats never operate from dirty political motives, Republicans, calling out Democrats, are doing so only for naked partisan reasons.
I do not trust Boobamba as far as I can throw him----that sap-happy look on his face during the interview w/ O'Reilly.......means he knows something we don't know. Boobamba had that same look in 2012 when he put Romney through the Democrat voter fraud meat grinder.
All the Dem fraudster finagling was done in 2012 swing states.....and we still do not have significant voter ID in place to push back the armies of phony Dem voters they will mobilize.
So?
In Landrieu, we bear witness to the offensive, twisted mind of a Democrat---- Landrieu proves why Dems should never, ever get even close to political power.
WHAT SHE WANTS VOTERS TO BELIEVE Landrieu aired a commercial showing her at numerous public settings last fall sternly telling Obama to "keep his promise to let people keep their current health plans if they want to" — w/ Landrieu taking credit----after Obama's failed attempt to make that happen.....
REALITY CHECK: Landrieu is caught on-tape, in the well of the Senate, parroting Obama's infamous lie, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan." AND THIS: “If you like the insurance that you have, you’ll be able to keep it.” (Landrieu on MSNBC’s Hardball, 12/16/09)
Somebody better check Landrieu's self-serving commercial----prolly faked.
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As far back as 2008, at the presidential debate in Nashville, Democrat candidate Obama advanced his signature healthcare plan---ultimately enacted, by an historic straight Democrat party-line vote, into the "Affordable Care Act"
QUOTING 2008 OBAMA: "No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.” Repeated over and over ---- with the promise that every American family would be saving $2500.00 on healthcare costs.
Significantly, Obamba NEVER corrected lock-stepping Democrats, all reading from the same Democrat talking points, all of them repeating the same Democrat promises---over and over again.
LOCK-STEPPING PARTY LOYALTY NOT SEEN SINCE 1930-40's ERA EUROPE Obama And The Dems marched in lockstep. The persistent Dumbocrat drumbeat ---- in obeisance to Obama ---- kept ringing reassuringly in our ears: "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."
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THE LANDRIEU PAPER TRAIL IS HUGE Landrieu sold her aye vote in what Forbes Magazine dubbed "The 'Louisiana Purchase" that included a massive $4.3 Billion to Landrieu.
FORBES REPORTED the Democrats’ nailed Landrieu’s support for Obamacare w/ a greenback bribe. Landrieu, critics believe, pledged her vote in exchange for some $200 million more additional federal funds for Louisiana. Except that, due to a drafting error, the law ended up giving Louisiana $4.3 billion: more than twenty times the assigned amount. MORE HERE http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml
How $4.3 billion to Landrieu was attached to the Obamacare bill, and how Obama and Reid failed to catch and fix it, is yet annother indictment of the Obamacare atrocity. The payoff to Landrieu should be investigated as an indication of how EVERY Democrat came to vote for Obamacare.
<><> Where's the $4.3 billion, Mary?
BACKSTORY In the fall of 2009, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was trying to get the necessary 60 Dimocrat votes to pass the Affordable Care Act. He needed every Dim on board, which gave waffling senators a great deal of leverage. In Landrieu's case, she connivingly saw that selling her aye vote could get her maybe $200 million federal dollars. Obama complied--- Reid chalked up another vote for Obamacare---and the $4.3 Landrieu giveaway was attached to the Obamacare bill.
<><> Where's the money, Mary?
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MEMO TO LOUISIANA VOTERS Sen Mary Landrieu not only (1) sold her vote; (2) she voted for throwing you off your health plans, (3) voted for nationalizing 1/16 of the US economy, Landrieu also (4) voted for IPAB's, and, for (5) decimating intergenerational transfers of wealth (grandma/pa's holdings go to the govt---not to you). Read on.
Ominous cogs in the Obamacare meat grinder----the inexorable forcing of Grandma/pa onto Medicaid--(like cattle herded single-file onto the narrow ramp---knowing the bolt is coming---but not able to do a thing about it).
Medicaid conveniently groups together the sick and elderly---as Obama's IPAB board of radical Boobamba worshippers sit in judgment. Boobamba's Orwellian-speak---the progressive way of saying "Obamacare keeps costs down."
The infamous "Death Panels---are alive and well----but they're not called death panels......for obvious reasons. The treacherous Obama euphemistically calls his death panel "I-PAB---- Individual Payment Advisory Board." I-PAB decides what to pay and who to pay---thus rationing medical care to sick oldsters. Obamacare "allows" states to expand their Medicaid recipients pool. Under Obamacare, Washington now covers about 1/2 the cost of Medicaid enrollees.
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What is I-PAB?
When you find out about IPAB, you will not believe it - but it’s r-e-a-l.... a new type of government agency. IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) is the first agency of the “fifth branch” of govt.
1) It will make all important health care decisions by authorizing payment or not.
2) It is not funded by Congress and cannot have its budget reviewed or changed.
3) Its membership cannot be changed by future Presidents,
4) It cannot be repealed by Congress, except for a six month window in 2017.
5) Its decisions are not subject to judicial review.
6) It is not authorized by the Constitution, and is therefore immune to Constitutional processes.
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Why is Obamacre herding seniors WITH ASSETS onto Medicaid---a program structured for the poor? Can you say redistribution of wealth? Herding the elderly with assets into Medicaid has ominous consequences that are intriguing to the left. B/c assets, perhaps a home owned free and clear, securities, annuities, investment property, can be seized to pay for govt treatment.
Thus intergenerational transfers of wealth (a longtime progressive bugaboo)----are decimated (grandma/pa's holdings go to the govt---not to you).
REMINDER: Lock-stepping Sen Mary Landrieu (Dim-LA) voted for this.
“Privately, even Republicans admit that focusing too much on the law is a risk.”
Really? Why...? Because it was/is SO well received and SUCH a success?
Ain’t that the truth. The writer talks like Republicans pointing out that PRINCIPALS in ramming ObamaCare down our collective throats isn’t cricket according to Hoyle’s Rules of Order..
That tactic is the stock and trade of Democrats except that Democrats most always lie. In the case of Republicans (conservatives here), they are the truth.
Good and keep pushing it. It is sowing its’ own seeds too.
I know there is no way in Cowboy Hell that I’d ever vote for Isakson, nor am I going to vote for anybody that Saxby endorses, the RNC endorses, or the GOP endorses as his replacement, period.
Correct.
In light of the fact that NO Republican voted for Obamacare, if these Democratic Party Senators were horn swaggled by Obama’s “If you like it, you can keep” lie [bought it hook line and sinker even while witnessing the ongoing battle and strong-arm tactics being employed to get the votes, the slime that brought us the “Cornhusker kickback,” the “Louisiana purchase” and the “Florida flim-flam”], the questions that must be raised are: Are they just too stupid to be representing the interests of their constituents? Or are they bought and paid for votes for the Lying Left? Or both?
Either way, they’re not trustworthy.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 unilateral legalization of 500,000 young illegal immigrants helped him win the 2012 election — at the cost of splitting 500,000 innocent, law-abiding American families for months on end, according to a New York Times article.
The ruthless political calculation was buried deep in the low-key article, which was published on page 20 of the local “New York edition” of the national newspaper.
Obama directed officials to award work-permits to the illegal immigrants, preventing them from preparing green cards for Americans’ foreign-born spouses and children. (Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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