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[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/team-trump-used-obamacare-money-to-run-ads-against-it

The effort, which involves a multi-pronged social media push as well as video testimonials designed at damaging public opinion of President Obama's health care law, is far more robust and sustained than has been publicly revealed or realized.

The strategy has caught the eye of legal experts and Democrats in Congress, who have asked government agencies to investigate whether the administration has misused funds and engaged in covert propaganda in its efforts to damage and overturn the seven-year-old health care law. It's also roiled Obama administration veterans, who argue that the current White House is not only abdicating its responsibilities to administer the law but sabotaging it in an effort to facilitate its undoing by Congress.

Under Secretary Tom Price's stewardship, HHS has filmed and produced a series of testimonial videos featuring individuals claiming to have been harmed by Obamacare. Those ”viral" videos have had decidedly limited reach, often gathering somewhere between 100 and 200 views each. But the Department has made a heavy investment in them nonetheless. To date, it has released 23 videos. A source familiar with the video production says that there have been nearly 30 interviews conducted in total, from which more than 130 videos have been produced.

Funding for those videos would come from the Department's ”consumer information and outreach" budget, which was previously used for the purposes of advertising the ACA and encouraging enrollment. The Trump administration has requested $574 million for this specific budget item, though HHS declined to detail how much it has devoted to specific line items. Two sources familiar with the videos say that HHS continues to draw money from the outreach fund, even though its objective has switched from promoting the ACA to highlighting the law's critics and its shortcomings.

Some other attempts at Obamacare sabotaging:

Perhaps the most glaring efforts to publicly undermine the ACA, has come on the Department of Health and Human Service's own website. In the Obama administration, this piece of online real estate featured direct links for consumers to apply for coverage and infographic breakdowns of the ACA's benefits and critical dates. Since Trump was inaugurated, it has been retrofitted into an bulletin board for critical information of the law.

* The ”Plain Language Benefits" section has been scrapped as has the section on ”ER Access & Doctor Choice."
* Under the ”pre-existing conditions" section, the Trump version has removed any mention of women no longer being able to be charged more than men for coverage.
* Under the ”Young Adult Coverage" section, the Trump HHS site no longer notes that before the ACA insurance companies could have removed enrolled children at the age of 19.
* Mentions of the ”Affordable Care Act" have been replaced with ”current law."
* And while the Obama HHS site had a section noting that the ACA forced insurance companies to provide ”easy-to-understand" summaries of benefit and coverage packages, the Trump site has no such page.

Ultimately, the HHS website is a place to obtain information on Obamacare but not a vehicle of obtaining coverage under the law. But changes have been made to healthcare.gov as well, and they're directly related to consumer education. Under the ”Get Answers" section of the site, there no longer is a ”Cost & Savings" tab that allows visitors to find out where to find prices, if they have to pay penalties, or if they qualify for savings.

On Legality:

The testimonial videos venture into the realm of political influencing, said Cary Coglianese, the Edward B. Shils professor of law and professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. But it was the tweets from Price and the HHS account—the ones encouraging and applauding passage of legislation—that drifted into legally troublesome areas.

”It certainly all sounds highly problematic and inappropriate," said Coglianese. ”It does seem very much akin to the kind of propaganda that the GAO faulted EPA for engaging in. The tweets by the Secretary are clearly seeking to shape public attitudes about Obamacare and whether it should be repealed and replaced. He is explicit about that. And it is highly unusual and, I think, problematic when government officials engage in that kind of public outreach."

Slap me with some propaganda if old.

 

[Dai101]

Of course he'll do this.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

sounds about right.

 

[CarlisleDavid1979]

Yes sounds like something they'd do.

 

[The Jackdog]

they are so fucking successful at doing so much fucked up wrong shit that i cannot even keep track anymore

 

[gdt]

That's....incredible.

 

[Skellig Gra]

they are so fucking successful at doing so much fucked up wrong shit that i cannot even keep track anymore

100-200 views doesn't sound very successful.

 

[Kaako]

Of course they did. Nothing is beneath filth like these.

 

[Pastry]

Seems successful considering Obamacare is getting more popular as time passes

 

[Joe]

Is this illegal or just "unethical"?

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

100-200 views doesn't sound very successful.

They're just testing the waters and using taxpayer money meant to improve healthcare access for Americans to do exactly the opposite (Sort of like every other agency right now).

 

[Trojita]

$574 million

But the welfare queens.

Steak and lobster.

 

[Neptonic]

That's a strong hustle

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Trump and his buttboys are probably embezzling a ton of money anyway. Probably one part of why Trump had a breakout about Mueller digging into his financials.

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

Trump and his buttboys are probably embezzling a ton of money anyway. Probably one part of why Trump had a breakout about Mueller digging into his financials.

I didn't post that part, but the contractors are being paid $500+ an hour to make these videos.

 

[Skellig Gra]

Is this illegal or just "unethical"?

I don't see how its illegal. The department is legally allowed to pursue its own agenda no matter how shitty and unethical it is. Obama and Trump were flip flopped in order and "TrumpCare" was a real thing would it not be ok for the Obama admin to spend its ”consumer information and outreach" resources to talk about how shitty it is?

Just like how he can appoint a total fuckhead to the Supreme Court

 

[Strike]

Of course he's a hypocrite.

 

[Saganator]

This is wrong on so many levels. These fucking assholes. If the HHS Department is doing this, it makes worried what other departments are up to.

 

[Sojgat]

Gee, it's almost like Trump is a giant vindictive conman piece of shit or something.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

The people in charge of this are probably so fucking out of touch they looked at the video views like, "Guys! This video got 200 views! 200!"

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

I wonder how many times we're going to hear people call the Trump administration 'problematic'.

 

[ahoyhoy]

Am I reading this right? Over 500 million to make some videos shitting on the ACA?

Sounds like slush fund shit.

 

[darkwing]

it is not illegal but highly unethical

 

[ultracal31]

Am I reading this right? Over 500 million to make some videos shitting on the ACA?

Sounds like slush fund shit.

To think that 500 million could be used for other things...

 

[LFMartins86]

Is this illegal or just "unethical"?

That seems to be the slogan for Trump's presidency.

 

[Lightning_Roller]

So, when can we drag these cretins to jail???

 

[Mutanthands]

Tom Price is a fucking traitor. Turn in your MD, you asshole.

Unconscionable. It's not surprising, but still manages to sting nevertheless. I can't imagine the propaganda that this administration is going shit out with that money. It will set back healthcare for years.

 

[Zenner]

Then there is Twitter. The official HHS account has become a clearinghouse for anti-Obamacare messaging. Since the Trump administration came into office, @HHSGov has mentioned “Obamacare” 13 specific times, 10 of which could be described as openly hostile of the law. Twice the account has re-tweeted Secretary Price’s own account when it has explicitly encouraged legislative efforts to undo Obamacare.

Everyone's going balls-to-the-wall to get a handle on their Twitter messaging. Crazy, killing themselves from within.

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

And damnit, I know I've posted a lot here, but I can't help but mention that I feel this is just the beginning. If Trump doesn't get his way, he'll just burn the whole thing to the ground.

 

[LucidMomentum]

If only the attack ad money went to it's intended use, maybe Obamacare would be in a better place.

But no, spend the money so the people suffering as a result blame it, and not the GOP.

SMH.

 

[Saint Gregory]

That seems to be the slogan for Trump's presidency.

LOL

 

[Binabik15]

Trump and his buttboys are probably embezzling a ton of money anyway. Probably one part of why Trump had a breakout about Mueller digging into his financials.

Learning by Putin, err, doing.

What's the point of government if not using the state's ressources against critics and personal "enemies" and stealing from the people?!

 

[hydragonwarrior]

Use this to save ppl or shit on Obama? That's not a difficult choice for Trump/Trumpites to make.

 

[Zackat]