More Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda…
CongressDaily reports this morning that the Administration is mailing out millions of postcards to small businesses to tout the small business tax credit included in Democrats’ health care takeover. This of course raises intriguing questions about what other elements of the health care law the Administration will be reaching out to inform Americans about:
- Has the White House pointed out in its postcards about the tax credit that businesses who do not offer “acceptable” coverage will be taxed by $2,000 per employee beginning in 2014?
- Will the White House send postcards to the 11 million seniors in Medicare Advantage plans highlighting the fact that their extra benefits will be reduced to fund the health care takeover – and the coverage they have and like could go away entirely?
- Will the White House send postcards informing consumers insurance premiums on the individual market will go up by $2,100 per family?
- Will the White House send postcards to all Americans pointing out that they will be taxed if they do not purchase government-approved health insurance, and that the IRS will have the power to garnish their tax refunds and take other punitive actions against them?
Of course, the White House had its own response to these questions: “The outreach is going to vary depending on what the provision is.” In other words, benefits of the law will be trumpeted through mass mailings to millions of Americans sent at taxpayers’ expense – while the costs will be ignored and minimized whenever possible.
Wikipedia notes that propaganda as defined “often presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented” – which sounds a lot like the scenario being described by the White House. So the ultimate question is: With the federal government running up trillion-dollar record deficits, why are millions of dollars in taxpayer funds being used for these transparent attempts to promote Democrats’ unpopular government takeover of health care?
For Small Businesses, Healthcare Pitch Is In The Mail
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
by George E. Condon Jr.More than 4 million postcards were mailed Monday to small-business owners, touting a tax credit in the new healthcare law that many of them are eligible to receive.
The mass mailing is the first step in an aggressive sales and information campaign planned by the White House in an effort to blunt criticism of the law.
“We want to make sure small employers across the nation realize that effective this tax year you may be eligible for a valuable new tax credit,” said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “We urge every small employer to take advantage of this credit if they qualify.”
Behind the mailing shows concern that pummeling from critics has taken a toll and branded the law as a big-spending, tax-raising measure to many Americans who are already skeptical of government solutions.
“There has been a lot of misinformation,” said a White House official, speaking on background. “But the facts are facts. And we are dead-set on doing everything we can to communicate what is in the bill.”
Opponents of the law predicted the mass mailing will have little impact on reluctance to embrace healthcare reform as it passed Congress. “Good luck with that,” joked conservative strategist Keith Appell, laughing at the notion that 4.4 million postcards could make people embrace the changes.
“The tax credit is going to be transcended by the higher costs,” said Appell. “Costs inevitably go up and up and up. So what good does a tax credit do for you?”
Ryan Ellis, tax policy director for the right-leaning Americans for Tax Reform, acknowledged the tax credits, but said the postcards leave out the context.
“They are $32 billion in costs, which is pretty small when you compare it to the fact that the whole healthcare bill had a tax increase total of $550 [billion] to $560 billion. … “It is tax relief that goes to small-business owners. But it kind of misses the larger point,” Ellis said.
The White House aide said the IRS mailing is “an example of the kind of thing we are going to be doing now. The outreach is going to vary depending on what the provision is. But in this case, the IRS wants to make sure that small-business owners know that the tax credit is retroactive to Jan. 1st of this year.”
The White House hopes that when millions of postcards start arriving, it will be a powerful sign “to show that this is happening right now, and they can take advantage of it.”
Politically, the White House expects Democratic candidates to become more aggressive in touting specific benefits in the law and President Obama also getting specific in his remarks. “He surely is not done talking about it,” said the aide. “He is proud of the bill and the good things it does, particularly the immediate benefits that start this year. And he will talk about them.”
The White House credited Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., with pushing them toward this kind of campaign. “This is the kind of things they wanted us to do, something tangible that they can put in the hands of constituents who come to the office,” the aide said, adding the White House plans to keep adjusting based on what Congress reports.
“We are basically trying to make sure that every question that comes up we are getting answers to, that if there is a prevalent question that it is a question we answer online,” he said. “If a member comes to us and says we know we are getting a great reaction or people are confused by this, we will take that into account and respond quickly.”
Much of the response will be online on the White House Web site, which will be updated as criticisms or vulnerabilities surface. The aide acknowledged “it can be frustrating” keeping up with misperceptions of what is actually in the law.
But Ellis said the opposition is not based on a misreading of the law or on a lack of education about the contents. “It is not a matter of perception. It is a matter of arithmetic,” he said. “This is a matter of facts.
“It is not that conservatives are being irrational. What would be irrational is to only look at what they’re telling us to look at. We are looking at the total picture.”