The Secret Plan to Defend Obamacare

Mike Brownfield

March 16, 2012

This week, The Heritage Foundation’s Rob Bluey obtained a four-page strategy memo that outlines a White House-coordinated campaign to force an unwilling public to accept Obamacare. Once again, all the strategies by the Administration and its liberal allies involve how better to message this hated law as the anniversary of its passage approaches and the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on its constitutionality. If only the Administration put this much effort into lowering the price of gas or creating jobs.

The memo identifies the White House’s target audience — seniors, women, and young adults — with a goal of “increas[ing] overall public support for the law by making the benefits of the law (and consequences of taking those benefits away) tangible by featuring stories of real people impacted.” The effort will focus on two key issues: “Remind people that the law is already benefiting millions of Americans by providing health care coverage, reducing costs and providing access to healthcare coverage. This message will include the ideas that these are benefits that politicans/the Court art (sic) are trying to take away from average Americans.”

“Frame the Supreme Court oral arguments in terms of real people and real benefits that would be lost if the law were overturned. While lawyers will be talking about the individual responsibility piece of the law and the legal precedence, organizations on the ground should continue to focus on these more tangible results of the law.”

The White House and its allies have a lot of persuading to do. The American people have come to their own conclusion about Obamacare — the law was a serious mistake, and it’s time for it to go.

Polling data shows the extent of the opposition. Fifty-three percent of Americans favor repeal, more than half of Americans say that the Supreme Court should strike down the mandate, 57 percent believe religious-affiliated employers should be exempt from the law’s anti-conscience mandate, 51 percent support a religious and moral exemption for all employers, and 60 percent of physicians believe the law will have a negative impact on overall patient care.

There’s good reason for their opposition. The latest news of Obamacare’s impact came from a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released this week. In one of the CBO’s reported scenarios, 20 million Americans could lose their employer-sponsored health benefits, and 49 million more Americans could become dependent on government-sponsored health care. And it won’t come cheaply for American taxpayers. Projecting through 2022, Obamacare could cost as much as $2.134 trillion, and individual and employer mandate penalties could hit $221 billion.

Then there’s the issue of the unconstitutional individual mandate that forces Americans to buy government dictated health insurance or pay a penalty, as well as the anti-conscience mandate that religious employers, including schools, hospitals, and charities, must provide abortion-inducing drugs and contraception despite the fact that such services totally contradict many of these groups’ core religious beliefs.

Under Obamacare, costs will go up, people will lose the coverage they have, and quality of care will decline. Individuals and businesses will face penalties, seniors will feel the effects of Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare, doctors will suffer from increased regulation and lower government reimbursement for services, taxpayers will face new taxes, jobs will be lost, millions of Americans will remain uninsured and stuck in overcrowded emergency rooms, religious institutions and the faithful will suffer the loss of their religious liberties, and future generations will pay the costs.

That’s not the message you’ll see and hear next week as the White House and its supporters descend on Washington and take to the airwaves in defense of Obamacare. But as much as they’d like to portray their efforts as a grassroots groundswell in defense of the President’s law, we know that it’s a highly coordinated effort to preserve an unconstitutional affront to the American people.

Quick Hits:

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The Obama Administration cut off all funding for the Texas Medicare Women’s Health Program now that the state is enforcing a law barring funding from clinics affiliated with abortion providers.
Lunchtime Chat: How will the Obama Administration’s flood of new regulations affect you? Join Heritage’s Diane Katz today from 12 to 1 ET as she takes your questions and discusses her new report.