Saturday, June 30, 2012

Koch-backed group launches $9 million ad campaign against health law; time to debunk their lies

Original Link: http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2012/06/29/koch-backed-group-launches-9-million-ad-campaign-against-health-law-time-to-debunk-their-lies/

Out here in California, I’ve been seeing anti-EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) ad after anti-EPA ad on the Tee Vee machine, sponsored by guess who? The coal industry! Surprise! That has to cost them a pretty penny (and a dirty one).

Now I see the Kochs are walloping the Affordable Care Act with attack ads, and why not? They’ve got millions upon millions to burn, so why not start smearing and lying now? Via The Hill:
A conservative advocacy group closely aligned with the Tea Party announced a $9 million swing-state push against President Obama and the healthcare law.

The announcement by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which is largely funded by the conservative Koch brothers, comes one day after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the vast majority of the law in a major coup for Obama.
Know what AFP President Tim Phillips said after the court ruling? “This is far from over.”
Fine with us. If the GOP wants this to be an issue, let’s make it one. We can start with educating voters the way the president did the other day.
A-a-and here come the lies:
The television ad calls the health law “one of the largest tax increases in history” — a refrain expected to form the foundation of GOP arguments against the law as the election draws near.

Shouldn’t President Obama’s priorities have been creating jobs and ending reckless spending?” the ad’s narrator says.
Time to set the record straight. First let’s address the tax increase:
Obamacare includes the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history. According to the independent Congressional Budget Office, 19 million people will receive tax credits worth an average of about $4,800 each to help them afford health care. These tax credits will finally put health insurance within reach for millions of American families.
Psst! KochHeads! It’s not a tax increase. And the penalty is not large by any stretch of the imagination:
The annual penalty is capped at an amount roughly equal to the cost of the national average premium for a qualified health plan — in other words you cannot be forced to pay more than it would have cost to buy a plan in the first place.

Flat dollar amount for individuals: $95 in 2014; $325 in 2015; and $695 in 2016; increases indexed to inflation after that, subject to a cap.
Hey, I know! They can call it a flat tax! Then they’d be all for it! Oh, but I kid the RWNJs.
And they might try addressing those vehemently anti-tax comments to their own candidate, since Willard Romney fully supported the same thing he’s now against in his plan-with-mandate-and-tax-penalty, too:



As for creating jobs, the president’s got that covered, by way of over 4 million private sector jobs; the economy has already added more jobs than in Bush’s first three years in office combined.



Those on the right are telling lies, lies, and more lies. Of course, Team Romney and his supporters would have you believe otherwise. But you know what they say:

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