Leahy gets a head start parroting HCAN's talking points

By Robert Maynard

There has been a lot of media attention focused on Vermont's senior Senator's shot across the bow of the Supreme Court Justices who are considering the constitutionality of Obamacare. Less attention is being paid to the fact that Senator Leahy's outburst followed closely on the heels of a discovery of a talking point memo being distributed by "Health Care for America Now," or HCAN. The memo in question is a strategy to promote Obamacare regardless of the Supreme Court's decision:

White House allies are already preparing a sweeping public relations campaign in response to next month's Supreme Court ruling on President Obama's health care law, one aimed at building political support for the law which ever way the court rules.

The strategy focuses on what the memo from an official at the group Health Care for America Now describes as "'real people' stories," and the memo instructs allies that "people with stories and other speakers need to be recruited, trained and prepared to respond within 24 hours by the end of May."

The memo was emailed to allies today by Herndon Alliance official Peter Van Vranken, (who said it was prepared by another liberal group, Health Care for American Now) and obtained by BuzzFeed, offers a glimpse into the broad campaign to save the Patien Protection and Affordable Care Act, which remains unpopular two years after its controversial passage, but some of whose provisions have broad popular support. The Herndon Alliance was described by Politico in 2009 as "the most influential group in the health arena that the public has never heard of," is centrally coordinating liberal public relations efforts around health care. Health Care for America Now is another central liberal umbrella group that was central to campaigns to back the health care law.

As already mentioned here and here, HCAN is a well funded national astroturf coalition of left wing groups with backing from George Soros and a virtual who's who of major leftist donors. They have been actively involved in pushing Obamacare on the American people from the beginning. Having put a ton of resources into this effort they are not about to allow minor inconveniences like the rejection at the polls by the American people in 2010, or the possibility of the whole mess being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, stop them from realizing their agenda of government control over our health care system.

As noted in the memo: "The final messaging will be either celebratory or agitational in tone depending on the result," it looks like Senator Leahy is getting a head start on setting the "agitational" tone. What I find ironic is his assertion regarding Chief Justice Roberts:

"I trust that he will be a chief justice for all of us and that he has a strong institutional sense of the proper role of the judicial branch," said Leahy. "The conservative activism of recent years has not been good for the court. Given the ideological challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the extensive, supportive precedent, it would be extraordinary for the Supreme Court not to defer to Congress in this matter that so clearly affects interstate commerce."

What about the well funded ideological effort to force this on the American people despite its lack of popularity? Further irony from Senator Leahy: "I was struck by how little respect some of the justices showed to Congress, and of how dismissive they were of the months of work in hearings and committee actions and debate of amendments and motions and points of order on the Senate and House floors before the measure was enacted." What about how little respect the Congress and President showed to the American people and our Democratic system?

Who can forget the billions of dollar in bribes it took the get Obamacare passed:

* The Cornhusker Kickback?

* $300,000,000 of bribes to Louisiana's Senator Mary Landrieu?

* A new hospital in Connecticut for morally challenged Senator Chris Dodd?

* Roughly ten billion in community health centers to buy off Vermont's Bernie Sanders?

* An exemption of Bill Nelson's Florida constituents from the Medicare Advantage cuts applicable to everyone else

* A threat to take away Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's committee chairmanship unless he falls into line

While we are taking a trip down memory lane, let's not forget Nancy Pelosi's assertion that members of Congress must "Pass Health Reform So You Can Find Out What's In It." In the end the bill did not have enough votes for cloture on a Senate filibuster, so the measure was rammed through the reconciliation process. The Democrats paid dearly in the 2010 elections for ramming through such an unpopular bill and now the Supreme Court just may be on the verge of declaring the whole thing unconstitutional. They are now engaged in a desperate last ditch effort to salvage their efforts and do not have much time left to do so. Strike one was the 2010 elections, strike two may be the Supreme Court decision with strike three coming in the November elections. According to current polls, this latest attempt to sell the American people on an agenda designed to allow a government takeover of the health care system is not succeeding any better than previous efforts.

© Robert Maynard