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Americans for Prosperity: Fighting clean air, global warming action and health care for all
Lobbying organization that funded global warming denial campaign produces misleading ads about Obama’s health care plan.
Fri, Jul 24 2009 at 1:05 PM
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Photo: Kristina Hernandez/Flickr
“I survived a brain tumor, but if I had relied on my government for health care, I’d be dead.”
Those are the dramatic words of Toronto resident Shona Holmes, star of a current television campaign against President Obama’s health care plan. The ads, produced by a group called Patients United Now, portray Holmes as a frightening real-life example of the horrors U.S. citizens would face if health care were nationalized.
However, there’s a slight problem with the ad: Holmes’ story isn’t true. Though Holmes has claimed many times on television that she was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor in 2005, in actuality, what doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona removed was a cyst that threatened her vision. Furthermore, her condition has actually worsened since traveling to the United States for treatment, and she had to put a second mortgage on her home to pay for the $100,000 surgery.
Media Matters tackled the inaccuracies in the Patients United Now "Survivor" ad starring Holmes, including the insinuation that a health care system like Canada’s would lead to delayed care. The media watchdog organization asks, “when Americans cannot afford health care, isn’t that suffering from ‘delayed or denied’ care?” and notes that Obama’s health care plan is not based on Canada’s model.
Beyond that, what Patients United Now fails to mention in its ubiquitous ads is that it’s a front group for Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the lobbying organization responsible for the Tax Day Tea Party protests and the Hot Air Tour, a campaign of misinformation about supposed ‘global warming alarmism’.
The organization also hosted "Drill, baby, drill" rallies around the country last year, financed Joe the Plumber’s tour against the Employee’s Free Choice Act and started "NoStimulus.com," a fake grassroots website that perpetuate false claims about the stimulus bill.
Masquerading as an organic grassroots organization is a common theme for Americans for Prosperity, which answers the question "Who Are We?" on the Patients United Now website with “We are people just like you.”
Except they’re not. Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog reports that AFP is a conservative think-tank funded in part by Koch Family Foundations, which has made its money in the oil business — primarily oil refining. Koch Industries holds stakes in pipelines, refineries, fertilizer, forest products and chemical technology. AFP is also connected to ExxonMobil, having received nearly $400,000 from the oil giant between 1998-2001 when the organization was known as Citizens for A Sound Economy.
And if its past actions are to be judged, Americans for Prosperity isn’t exactly a cheerleader for improved health in America. The organization advocates pro-tobacco industry positions on issues like clean air laws, opposing attempts to regulate air pollution from cigarettes on the grounds that the issue is one of economics and personal liberty, not of public health.
Jessica Kutch of the Service Employees International Union’s analysis of the "Survivor" ad pretty well sums up the modus operandi of AFP:
“This latest attack is lifted straight off a messaging memo by Republican strategist Frank Luntz, whose talking points aim to undermine health care reform in three simple steps: scare, conflate and confuse the American public.”
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DMW
Jul 13 2010 at 1:49 PM
Is this group really for American’s prosperity or rather for China’s, Germany’s, and Denmark’s because they are the countries making strides in the new green economy. The word prosperity in their name is a misnomer because the greatest opportunities are in the new, green economy and they, by their ignorance, are doing everything possible to make the U.S. slide ever further below other nations. This group seems to stand more for lack of ideas, the status quo and poverty of thought and that’
.... More
s neither prosperous nor American.
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Aaron
Jul 25 2009 at 2:11 PM
Before Medicare and Medicaid, there was charity. Once the government stepped in to FORCE all of us to pay for charity, whether we like it or not and whether we can really afford to or not, the medical charities quickly began to decrease.
When are you leftist morons going to realize that FORCING people to be charitable is neither charitable nor does it endorse freedom? In fact, if you truly believe in charity and freedom, then you should adamantly oppose FORCE as a means to that end.
After all,
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isn't FORCING someone to do something against their will the very essence of anti-freedom? Isn't FORCING one person to pay for another person immoral?
We don't live in a democracy here, people, we live in a regime that FORCIBLY takes money from one person to give it to another person. Whether that person is a business magnate, a banker, a social worker, or a cop; that's what the system really is.
As soon as you see that government = force and is therefore only a way to point a gun at one person and FORCE them to give up something for another, you realize why you shouldn't use government to enforce any but the most fundamental of social laws (violent crime, theft).
Of course, without government guns to turn to, none of you socialists would have any idea how to get your little "programs" in place. Since without government enFORCEment, your only hope would be to appeal to the logic and understanding of people. You cannot do that.
So please keep your guns out of my face and stop robbing me to pay for your dreamy b.s. Obama's healthcare plan will FORCE me to get insurance that I don't want. How nice of you to have my best interests at heart while you're pointing that gun at my face.
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