FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. CONTACT: Press Office. July 20, 2009. 202-863-8614
RNC TV AD TO AIR IN TARGETED STATES STARTING MONDAY
WASHINGTON -> Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele today announced a new television ad opposing President Obama's plan for a government-run health care system during a speech at the National Press Club. The ad, entitled "Grand Experiment," can be viewed below:
Starting today, this large, targeted television ad campaign will run in select markets in Arkansas, Nevada and North Dakota.
"Once again President Obama and Congressional Democrats are rushing through a grand experiment that will have serious consequences for future generations of Americans. It started with their failed stimulus bill and has now moved on to a trillion-dollar government-run health care plan that is simply wrong for America. Republicans know we need health care reform ?costs are too high and families are struggling to afford quality care. But the Democrats' plan would raise taxes on small businesses and lead to higher costs and rationed care," said Chairman Michael Steele.
TEXT TRANSCRIPT:
Time: 00:30
Voice: "They've loaned Barack Obama their future, without even knowing it."
Voice: "Trillions for rushed government bailouts and takeovers, banks, the auto industry."
Chyron: Trillions for government bailouts and takeovers
Voice: "The biggest spending spree in our nation's history."
Chyron: The biggest spending spree in history
Voice: "And they'll have to pay."
Voice: "The next big ticket item? A risky experiment with our health care."
Chyron: A risky experiment with health care
Voice: "Barack Obama's massive spending experiment hasn't healed our economy."
Chyron: Barack Obama's massive spending experiment
Voice: "His new experiment risks their future and our health."
Chyron: BarackObamaExperiment.com
Chyron: Risking everything.
Voice: "The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."
ONSCREEN Disclaimer: The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. www.gop.com
AD FACTS
The Ad
VOICE: "They've loaned Barack Obama their future, without even knowing it. Trillions for rushed government bailouts and takeovers, banks, the auto industry."
CHYRON: Trillions for government bailouts and takeovers
The Facts
Obama's Bank Bailout Plan Costs $2.5 Trillion. "The White House plan to rescue the nation's financial system, announced on Tuesday by Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, is far bigger than anyone predicted and envisions a far greater government role in markets and banks than at any time since the 1930s. Administration officials committed to flood the financial system with as much as $2.5 trillion ?$350 billion of that coming from the bailout fund and the rest from private investors and the Federal Reserve, making use of its ability to print money." (Edmund L. Andrews And Stephen Labaton, "Bailout Plan: $2.5 Trillion And A Strong Hand," The New York Times, 02/11/09)
Federal Government 60 Percent Shareholder Of GM. "By preparing to take a 60 percent stake in a reorganized GM, the Obama administration is gambling that the automaker can compete with the likes of Toyota Motor Corp after its debt is cut by half and its labor costs are slashed under a new contract with the United Auto Workers union." (Kevin Krolicki and John Crawley, "GM To File For Bankruptcy, Chrysler Sale Cleared," Reuters, 6/1/09)
"As part of the revised plan, the U.S. would provide GM with at least $30 billion in financing to carry it through and out of bankruptcy, on top of the $20 billion in loans the government already has given the company." (Neil King Jr., John D. Stoll, and Kevin Helliker, "GM In Last Lap To Chapter 11," The Wall Street Journal, 5/29/09)
The Ad
VOICE: "The biggest spending spree in our nation's history."
CHYRON: The biggest spending spree in history
The Facts
Obama's "Spending Spree" Twice As Costly As Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Historic "New Deal." "In sheer size, the economic measures announced by President Barack Obama to address ? crisis unlike we've ever known' are remarkable, rivaling and in many cases dwarfing the New Deal programs that Franklin D. Roosevelt famously created to battle the Great Depression ŠSo far in his month-old presidency: Congress passed and Obama signed into law a record $787 billion mix of tax cuts, job-creating projects and aid to struggling states; The president pledged up to $275 billion in federal aid to help stem a tidal wave of home foreclosures; The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve announced financial-rescue steps that could send up to $2 trillion coursing through the economy. In all, the plans would raise the federal portion of the U.S. economy to some 31 percent, more than twice the level after eight years of FDR's historic New Deal spending." ("Obama's Spending Spree To Eclipse FDR's New Deal," The Associated Press, 02/20/09)
Obama's Budget Would Create Historic Deficits. "Since the 1960s, deficits largely by increased levels of spending have been the norm, while surpluses were an exception. The 2009 Congressional Budget Office deficit projection under President Obama's plan is far above the 45-year historical average of 2.2 percent of GDP." [Graph shows average federal deficit as percentage of GDP by administration: Kennedy 1.0%, Johnson 0.9%, Nixon 1.6%, Ford 3.5%, Carter 4.3%, Reagan 4.3%, Bush 4.3%, Clinton 0.1%, Bush 3.2%, Obama 7.3%.] (Page 24, "2009 Federal Revenue And Spending Book Of Charts," Heritage Foundation, May 2009)
The Ad
VOICE: "And they'll have to pay. The next big ticket item? A risky experiment with our health care."
CHYRON: A risky experiment with health care
The Facts
Obama's Government-Run Health Care Plan Will Cost Over $1 Trillion. "On a preliminary basis, CBO and the JCT staff estimate that the proposal's provisions affecting health insurance coverage would result in a net increase in federal deficits of $1,042 billion for fiscal years 2010 through 2019." (Congressional Budget Office, "A Summary of the Specifications for Health Insurance Coverage Provided by the House Tri-Committee Group," CBO Report, 7/14/09)
Plan Creates New Czar That Will Push Government-Run Health Insurance. "The health choices commissioner would head an independent agency, as envisioned in the 800-page draft bill released by House Democratic leaders. The Health Choices Administration would regulate a revamped insurance marketplace and be expected to deliver Obama's promise of affordable coverage for all ... The commissioner and the new agency would run a kind of national purchasing pool through which individuals and small businesses could pick medical coverage from private plans and a government-sponsored alternative." (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, "Need For Federal Insurance Czar Is Questioned," The Associated Press, 7/7/09)
Plan Could Lead To Estimated 113 Million People Losing Private Health Insurance. "We estimated the effect on coverage in the third year of the program assuming the public plan is opened to individuals and all firms, the public plan would enroll about 122.9 million people ... The number of people with private health insurance would decline by about 113.5 million people. This is equal to about 66 percent of all people currently covered under private health insurance ...." (John Shelis, Vice President, Lewin Group, "The Impact of the House Health Reform Legislation on Coverage and Provider Incomes," Testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, 6/25/09)
Government-Run Health Care Pays Much Less Than Private Insurance, Which Makes Doctors Refuse Patients. "Despite more Michiganians piling onto the Medicaid rolls, fewer doctors are treating or accepting new patients insured by this state-run medical program for low-income residents ... Doctors say the state-set reimbursement rates are already too low, in some cases covering only one-third of the actual costs of patient visits." (Christina Rogers, "Doctors Balk At Medicaid Program," The Associated Press, 6/7/09)
The Ad
VOICE: "Barack Obama's massive spending experiment hasn't healed our economy."
CHYRON: Barack Obama's massive spending experiment
The Facts
Obama's Stimulus Fails To Create Jobs Despite Obama Administration's Predictions Of "Boom In Job Creation". "[T]wo of [Obama's] chief economic advisers, and leading proponents of a stimulus bill, predicted that the passage of a large economic-aid package would boost the economy and keep the unemployment rate below 8%. It hasn't quite worked out that way. Last month, the jobless rate in America hit 9.5%, the highest level it has reached since 1983 ... What has not come to pass, however, is the boom in job creation that Romer and Bernstein predicted. A little over a month ago, the Administration said the stimulus bill had created or saved 150,000 jobs. That's a far cry from the 3 million to 4 million jobs that Romer and Bernstein foresaw back in January." (Stephen Gandel, "Obama's Stimulus Plan: Failing by Its Own Measure," Time, 7/14/09)
Under Obama, Job Losses Now At Historic Highs. "The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion." (Mortimer Zuckerman, Op-Ed, "The Economy is Even Worse Than You Think," The Wall Street Journal, 7/14/09)
The Ad
VOICE: "His new experiment risks their future and our health."
CHYRON: BarackObamaExperiment.com
CHYRON: Risking everything.
The Facts
CBO Director Says Plans For Government-Run Health Care Would Worsen Budget Outlook. "President Obama's plan to expand health coverage to the uninsured is likely to dig the nation deeper into debt unless policymakers adopt politically painful controls on spending, such as sharp reductions in payments to doctors, hospitals and other providers, congressional budget analysts said yesterday. While popular measures such as increasing preventive care, expanding the use of electronic medical records and rewarding doctors for choosing more effective treatments have the potential to lower costs, 'little reliable evidence exists about exactly how to implement those types of changes,' Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas W. Elmendorf said in a letter to Senate budget leaders. 'Without meaningful reforms, the substantial costs of many current proposals . . . would be much more likely to worsen the long-run budget outlook than to improve it,' he said. ..." (Lori Montgomery, Shailagh Murray & Ceci Connolly, "Obama's Health Plan Needs Spending Controls, CBO Says," The Washington Post, 6/17/09)
CBO Concludes Obama's Plan Increases Number Of Uninsured Americans In 2011 And 2012. (Page 13, "A Summary of the Specifications for Health Insurance Coverage Provided by the House Tri-Committee Group," CBO Report, 7/14/09)
After Spending Over $1 Trillion, 17 Million Residents Will Still Be Uninsured. "According to that assessment, enacting legislation that embodied those specifications would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of $1,042 billion over the 2010-2019 period. By 2019, CBO and the JCT staff estimate, the number of nonelderly people without health insurance would be reduced by about 37 million, leaving about 17 million nonelderly residents uninsured (nearly half of whom would be unauthorized immigrants) ..." (Douglas W. Elmendorf, CBO Director, Letter To Rep. Charles Rangel, 7/14/09)
CBO Director Criticizes Plan For Not Making Necessary "Fundamental Changes" To Reduce Costs. "Under questioning by members of the Senate Budget Committee, CBO director Douglas Elmendorf said bills crafted by House leaders and the Senate health committee do not propose 'the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount.' 'On the contrary,' Elmendorf said, 'the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.'" (Lori Montgomery, "CBO Chief Criticizes Democrats' Health Reform Measures," The Washington Post, 7/16/09)
Government-Run Health Care Could Drive Doctors Out Of Business, Especially In Rural Areas. "According to Dr. Scott Nelson, a family practice physician in Cleveland, Mississippi ... 'There is an unprecedented level of frustration with the government and Medicare in Mississippi,' Nelson explained. 'I have not heard of any doctors in my area opting out of Medicare, because there are not enough patients with private insurance in the rural Mississippi Delta ... we have no choice but to see them, and we are literally at the mercy of the government. I foresee some small practices closing altogether.' For states that are made up of larger numbers of Medicare patients, this latest round of cuts hits particularly hard. Florida, for instance, stands to lose $1.25 billion for physician payments by January 2009." (Audrey Grayson, "Docs Bailing Out Of Medicare, Medicaid," ABC News Medical Unit, 7/8/08)
Plans For "Comparative Effectiveness Research" Leads To Government Boards Deciding What Treatments Would Or Wouldn't Be Funded. "Skeptics, however, say Obama's decision to invest heavily in such research will lead to European-style rationing in which patients are denied lifesaving therapies to save money. It also has alarmed some drug companies and medical device manufacturers, which fear that a system of winners and losers is bound to reduce their bottom lines." (Ceci Connolly, "Comparison Shopping For Medicine," The Washington Post, 3/17/09)
Health Care Will Be Subject To Political Priorities. "The limits of single-payer insurance are a consequence of a common political reality: if governments fund it, governments wear it. Once the so-called single-payer system is in place, government insurers are obliged to manage costs politically, making decisions about capital investments, technology, and even the supply of licensed medical professionals based on short-term budgetary or political priorities." (Dr. David Gratzer, Committee on Education and Labor's Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, U.S. House of Representatives, Testimony, 6/10/09, p. 4)
"Cost-Cutting Measures" Will Eventually Fail, Leading To Less Access For Patients. "What Mr. Obama is describing is his preferred health-care future. If or when the Administration's speculative cost-cutting measures under universal health care fail to produce savings, government will start explicitly limiting patient access to treatments and services regarded as too expensive. Democrats deny this eventuality, but health planners will have no choice, given that the current entitlement system is already barreling toward insolvency without adding millions of new people to the federal balance sheet." (Editorial, "Obama's Health Future," The Wall Street Journal, 6/26/09) ###
No comments:
Post a Comment