Criminal… Team Obama Spent Up to $200 Million on Obamacare Propaganda Campaign

This is criminal.
The Obama Administration spent up to 200 million taxpayer dollars to push Obamacare.

It cost $700,000 to run the Andy Griffith ObamaCare ad.

Judicial Watch reported, via Free Republic:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from the Obama Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailing the agency’s massive taxpayer-funded multimedia campaign designed to promote the Affordable Health Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and other HHS policy initiatives. According to the records obtained by Judicial Watch pursuant to a March 23, 2011, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 11-608)), the total cost of the campaign, which targets Obama’s electoral coalition, could reach as much as $200 million.

Among the highlights from the documents:

An April 27, 2010 Department of Health and Human Services Acquisition Plan entitled “National Multimedia & Education Campaign & Grassroots Outreach,” details a comprehensive five-year communications program covering a variety of HHS policy initiatives, including “health care reform.”

According to a section of the Acquisition Plan entitled, “Independent Government Cost Estimate,” the Health and Human Services ASPA (Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs) states: “ASPCA is unable to provide a definitive government cost estimate. Campaigns vary is [sic] size and scope. Some campaigns involve radio, some TV, and some print. Other campaigns may involve all of those avenues plus on ground events, website, bus tours, etc.” However, ASPA “is letting this contract in order produce three to four campaigns per year through the life-cycle of the contract. We are requesting a contract with a $200,000,000 maximum.”

According to a subsequent March 14, 2011, contract included among the documents, HHS hired The Ogilvy Group “to provide services to design, develop, and execute a multiplatform educational media campaign to promote the new website Healthcare.gov, including the new Spanish language version of the website.” The total amount of the contract award: $3,998,928.

There’s more.

#1 April 12, 2011 at 1:54 pm
aprilnovember811 commented:

I thought that because of Obama’s complextion laws didn’t apply to him. What’s the big deal? He doesn’t have to be born here, he can steal money, he can lie about it etc. He’s historic right?
#2 April 12, 2011 at 1:57 pm
SSBN 627(B) commented:

Mere chump change to the elitists. Terribly easy to spend money earned by others. then take more. Typical liberal who has never – NOT ONCE – had to break a bead of sweat to feed his family.
#3 April 12, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Rick commented:

Everyday brings disclosure of another Obama outrageous act toward the American taxpayer. We have to get this jerk out of office.
#4 April 12, 2011 at 2:11 pm
SSBN 627(B) commented:

It would require 100% of my income for 10 freakin years just to pay for the AG spot. Hang your head in shame, Andy. Next time I hear some idiot whistling that theme song I’m gonna beat his damn*d brains out.

Theme song for this administration is a weird confluence of Taxman (Beatles)/I’d Love to Change the World (Alvin Lee)/Cult of Personality (Living Color).
#5 April 12, 2011 at 2:12 pm
gus commented:

This is HOPE and CHANGE folks. Obama is a phucking scum bag.
#6 April 12, 2011 at 2:13 pm
darcy commented:

Through our tax dollars we are funding our own enslavement by the Central (Communist) Government.

Meanwhile, Boehner hasn’t the guts to force a “shutdown” because he fears the Obama Public Relations War — and because he’s not SMART enough or just not conservative enough to realize we are in hand-to-hand combat with enemies of our country, and he has FAILED to get ready for the PR battle.

The battle is being waged in the media; if our side can’t figure that out, we’re going down for the last count, and no one can save us.
#7 April 12, 2011 at 2:22 pm
tommy mc donnell commented:

another one of the thousands of reasons that we need to take OUR money back from the politicans. this was a law that the majority of people did not want. the politicans used the fruits of our own labor to help shove this law the throats of the majority of people. if we don’t start to take OUR money back from the politicans the harder we work the more ammunition they have to oppress us.
#8 April 12, 2011 at 2:33 pm
Lee commented:

I have been in a cold rage against this bunch since they rammed Obamacare down our throats, all the while plugging their ears to the screams of protest. If Andy Griffith wasn’t obviously on the verge of dementia, I’d be furious with him too, lending his fame to this hideous fraud.

If we can’t stop these big-spending politicians, who obviously either want to crash the economy, or simply refuse to believe there is a serious spending crisis for the country, we’re all going to be paying for it — except for the guys in charge. You can bet they’re already hedged against any possible consequences of any kind of calamity resulting from their irresponsibility. And I hold the leadership of the Republicans as responsible as I do the Democrats.

As usual, we, the taxpaying, responsible citizens, are the goats in the games of the elites.
#9 April 12, 2011 at 2:42 pm
contessa61 commented:

What is even more criminal was the billion dollars spent to shore up public and private retirement health care systems, and THEN exempt them from Obamacare. 32 billion of taxpayers money given to GE’s health retirement account, and that after GE paid NO federal taxes. Totally corrupt Obama administration.
#10 April 12, 2011 at 2:44 pm
contessa61 commented:

ERRP – 5 billion dollar slush fund, even helps bail out CBS and the Washington Post
http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/04/hey-guess-whos-benefiting-from-the-obamacare-early-retirement-slush-fund/

Hey Obama, do you think you could bail out FOX news?
#11 April 12, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Andreas K. commented:

I could say something, but I won’t. I’ll be nice, for once.

Anyway.

Sounds more and more like the British NHS to me. They, too, spent a lot of money on such things, and on their higher echolon. It went so far that the NHS now has to save money.

Guess how they’re doing it.

By reducing financing for treatments. Add that to the already horrendous waiting lists you have with a nationalized health care.

And it’s like that everywhere in the EU.

My mother had surgery on the varices in her leg a few years ago. She’s not so young anymore and those can lead to significant issues. With nationalized healthcare she was told at the public hospital “Waiting time is one year.” One year, with that one particular nasty varix she had. Oh yeah, that’s really going to help with the condition of the bugger. Not.

Now, my parents have additional private insurance, so she went to a private hospital not far from my hometown. Know what they said there? “When do you have time?”

You get what you pay for.

Right now I have cadillac healthcare since I work for the government -and you can all trust me, of course- (I love saying that, sometimes it freaks people out, I work in a museum that belongs to the state ), but I picked up additional private insurance, just in case.
#12 April 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Lenore commented:

When someone starts filing charges against Obama and his czars let me know, until then this is just more of the same and we can’t do anything about it until 2012.
#13 April 12, 2011 at 2:58 pm
greg commented:

Every time I see a government advertising campaign run by contractors I presume that it is the hard money payback to the contractor for services provided during an election. The ad quality does not transfer a concept nor usefull information,
#14 April 12, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Neo commented:

Seems sort of equivalent to to this …

Seeking an explanation from Ms. Norton, Mr. Markey told her in a letter today, ”It would appear on the face of it that your use of your official office to promote this industry-sponsored video in an effort to influence Congress to drill in the Arctic Refuge is precisely the kind of activity that is prohibited by law.”

That law expressly prohibits agencies from distributing any ”film presentation designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress,” although it has been interpreted more broadly by government ethics offices. It does not apply to the lobbying routinely done by cabinet members, but is read as barring participation in mass mailings, letter-writing campaigns and other grass-roots activities like those of Arctic Power, the group that prepared the pro-drilling video.

In an interview, Mr. Markey said the Interior Department was becoming ”a cinema house for lobbyists.”
#15 April 12, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Freddy commented:

And the crack team of experts on the Republican side did NOT make DEFUNDING Obamacare the ISSUE worth ‘shutting down’ the government last week! They had no problem making Obamacare the issue of the last election, while ALL the Democrats ran from it. But now, when the time came for implementing the election promise, the Republicans never once mentioned it!

Are Republicans are drooling over the thought of wielding the power of life and death over the American people.

Never underestimate the power of power!
#16 April 12, 2011 at 3:24 pm
befuddled commented:

but the savings McD’s got from an Obamacare waiver allowed it to hire 50,000 new workers. obamacare = winning.
#17 April 12, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Gary commented:

you know what would be a really good remix of this video clip?

There is an old 50s movie by the name of A Face in the Crowd starring Andy Griffith.
He is plucked from obscurity and becomes a television sensation watched by millions.
He gets mad with power and is finally brought down by his inner circle when he is recorded talking about the stupid audience at home…. hanging on his every word
“WHy, I could tell them to eat dog food and they’d lap it up!…”
You get the picture.

Would be really neat to splice this with that.
#19 April 12, 2011 at 5:10 pm
save us commented:

Who is watching the store?
Obviously no one.
#21 April 12, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Beef commented:

#12 April 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Lenore commented:
When someone starts filing charges against Obama and his czars let me know, until then this is just more of the same and we can’t do anything about it until 2012.
—————————-

Exactly. So this is criminal. Who is going to do anything about it?
#24 April 13, 2011 at 7:29 am
Hedgehog commented:

I’m sure that there is language buried in the Obamacare bill that authorizes these expenditures and appropriates the funds. Lacking authority and appropriation, such expenditures would be illegal. But, you know, these days you have to pass the bill to find out what is in it. They are cleaning us out. Can anyone say “High crimes and misdemeanors”?
#25 April 13, 2011 at 8:24 am
usamopatriot commented:

As far as Andy Griffith is concerned…….there is no fool like an old fool……
#26 April 13, 2011 at 10:55 am
Stoshio commented:

So who would file criminal charges against the BO administration? Holder? I think not. We need to publicize things like this. Put them in the local newspaper. Call the radio talk shows. Get people to talk about it. The state-run media is not going to cover it.