Republicans might be talking a lot less about Obamacare these days, but you can be sure that when they are talking about it, they're pretty much lying. And when they have campaign ads about it, well, there's going to be some debunking. Steve Benen
catches the latest, this time an ad by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for embattled Sen. Mitch McConnell, the one who is all for repealing Obamacare, "root and branch."
Benen points out the problem with this ad in a nutshell: "[T]he Chamber of Commerce is running a health care ad to help McConnell featuring a business owner who disagrees with McConnell about healthcare. Oops."
The ad features Lexington business owner Patty Breeze, who tells voters that the ACA is "stifling business." Curious about that, Kentucky reporter Joe Sonka talked to Breeze, who actually had a few praises for the law, along with criticism, and who firmly places herself in the "keep it and fix it" camp.
"There are some good parts to that federal act,” said Breeze, “that people aren’t denied (coverage for) pre-existing conditions, and children can stay on their parents health insurance for longer to age 26, and that we’ve got free preventative services that promote wellness. There are good pieces to that.”
Asked whether lawmakers should go back and fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that arent’ running smoothly, or repeal the law and start over from scratch, Breeze answered that she favors the “keep and fix” approach. […]
Asked what she thought of politicians who favor repealing the law “root and branch,” Breeze answered, ” I don’t know… I’ve already told you I think it needs revision. I think they need to keep the good parts of it, and they need to revise the way they’re delivering it. They need to encourage the free market (to participate), and I think they’re discouraging it.”
That doesn't really sound much like what Mitch McConnell is saying about the law. As Benen points out, it's what his Democratic opponent—Alison Lundergan Grimes—is saying. But McConnell has to get through his primary against a tea party candidate, so he's stuck. And the Chamber of Commerce is running ads for him using a surrogate who disagrees with his position on the law.
That's a perfect example of the problem Republicans have trying to run against Obamacare, the dilemma they're all going to have once they get past the primaries and have to run in the general election when they have to justify running on taking away the health care of millions of people.