October 26, 2011: Who Coined 'Obamacare'? (Free Republic mentioned)

The Wire.com ^ | October 26, 2011 | ELSPETH REEVE

[South40]

House Democrats are blocking their Republican colleagues from using Obamacare in letters mailed on the taxpayer's dime to voters, but who made up the term in the first place? Lots of people are asking this question, getting answers like "Certainly a republican, potentially Glenn Beck" and "I am about 80% sure it was Rush Limbaugh" and "Hillary Clinton's campaign coined Obamacare." Iowa Rep. Steve King claimed President Obama himself made it up. Free Republic posters want to claim credit. Lots of liberals suspect an insidious plot by Fox News. But the answer appears to be: a lobbyist.

[ToastedHead]

Posting With Protection

[vigilante2]

Zerocare is a better name for it!

[null and void]

Does montag813 know about you?

[ToastedHead]

Is he available for fleecing of assets?

[null and void]

He's a fireman...

[ToastedHead]

Will check his response time. Lighting myself now to develop tolerance to FR banning procedures...

[Enduring Freedom]

OK.

Imagine a Lib skank propagandist for hire by the hour.

A Goebbels, that gobbles.

[sphinx]

who says the minority party can force the Boehner cowards over a word ?

I assume this has to do with approval of congressional newsletters. Newsletters are bulk mail and have long been distinguished from individual constituent mail.

With modern word processing, this gets a bit tricky. It has been many years since I worked on the Hill, but offices used to be (and I presume still are) required to submit newsletter copy for approval by (IIRC) the House Administration Committee, or whatever it is called these days. Again if recollection serves, back in my day small lists could be mailed without prior review, but anything over 500 pieces had to be submitted.

Newsletters are not supposed to be political in nature, so very murky lines get drawn about what is permissible. This leads to periodic dustups.

If the dems are censoring Obamacare, they are opening themselves to mockery. Assuming, of course, that tone deaf Republicans are agile enough to respond.

[Fresh Wind]

FUBOcare.

[Yossarian]

So, who are the FReeper winners in this contest?

As I felt like wasting a lot of time, I did some (read: way WAY too much) clicking around…..

As it turns out, Cicero was right: socialized health care in the US is often labeled by those fighting hardest for that particular implementation: hence the preceding "Hillary-Care", "RomneyCare", etc.

The first references to ObamaCare started appearing when Zero made his call for "Universal Health Care" in a speech to "Families USA" on 1/25/07, when his campaign was supposedly in "exploratory mode".

The first use of "Hussein Care" was:
    "When can we start referring to his proposal as "Hussein Care"? "
    in the thread:
   Obama calls for universal health care within six years (and Hillary too)
    by PBRSTREETGANG on 1/26/07, 11 AM;

The first use of "Obama Care" was:
    "If obama-care mirrors the earlier hillary-care, the government will decide doctor's specialties."
    in the thread:
   "Obama Calls for Universal Health Care"
    by Jacquerie on 1/29/07, 5 AM;

---

What's fascinating about going back into these threads and searching around is just HOW different the world was back then! In early 2007,

• the economy seemed to be doing OK, and unemployment seemed low;
• The Dems just made a lot of inroads into Congress, but that was due to "scandal" thanks to dumb GOP reprobates, aided by a hyping MSM;
• The dems and libs had not had their chance yet to do the damage they would do, with W's absent complicity;
• Most were worried about Zero's views on Iraq and his suave ways with the press, not his health-care push.
• The war was very much more on everyones minds.

Oh, how the world would change….

[mad_as_he$$]

It’s a moron vs an oxymoron.

[adorno]

Obamacare is good for placing the blame where it belongs. Without Obama, the bill would not have been signed into law.

However, since the care we’re going to get might be comparable to what people in Obama’s home country get, why not call it KenyaCare?

Another name that would fit, is BOCare, in honor of the dog in the White House.

Since Obamacare is nothing but a Ponzi scheme, why not name it appropriately, and call it PonziCare.

[ToastedHead]

Using your evidence, the original concept award would go to PBRSTREETGANG.

Somewhere today at FR, someone is making a comment that foreshadows a disaster we won’t hear about until 2019.

[Jane Long]

HusseinCare...because anyone *who's sane* won't accept it.

And, because the MSM/0 handlers don't like us to use his middle name.

[Jacquerie]

Well whaddaya know!

[a fool in paradise]

On the Washington Post's website, Benac's story carried the headline, "In Health Care Debate, U-Word Is Back."

UNAFFORDABLE?

[Understand the stimulus]

thanku...if house were the senate and roles were reversed...they would change the rules

[sphinx]

Again, my recollections are decades old, but the rules on franking of mass mailings limited things like the numbers of pictures of the congresscritter that could be included, the amount of self-referencing in text, and a bar against overtly political messaging. The idea is that congressional "newsletters" are supposed to be non-partisan and informational in character, as opposed to political. The lines can get awfully blurry.

But if democrats now regard "Obamacare" as a term of invective, that is good news.