Michelle Malkin » The illustrated guide to Obamacare human props

The illustrated guide to Obamacare human props

By Michelle Malkin • August 12, 2009 12:48 AM

Little Julia Hall is just the latest in-the-tank questioner with Obama campaign/Democrat ties to turn up “randomly” at presidential health care forums.

Here’s your illustrated guide to Obamacare human props.

In July, Obama hosted a White House citizen town hall that featured three face-to-face questions. The lucky three?

*Debby Smith. You remember her. She choked back tears as she talked of her battle with kidney cancer, her joblessness, and her lack of insurance. Obama hugged the trembling woman and dubbed her “Exhibit A” for his massive entitlement program.

Debby Smith, however, is no ordinary patient. While she may be “unemployed,” she has been rather busy working for the Obama campaign – as a volunteer for the DNC’s Organizing for America. Smith also identified herself as a worker for the Virginia Organizing Project, which has been coordinating lobbying trips and health care forums with HCAN. Yes, that same HCAN. In December, Smith moderated a “a community discussion on health care issues” in Appalachia, Virginia and told her local paper that the meeting “would be reported back to former Sen. Tom Daschle, who has been directed by President Elect Barack Obama to form a committee to report on health care issues.”

*Jason Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum works for the Washington, D.C.-based Health Care for America Now (HCAN). That’s the K Street Astroturf outfit with a $40 million budget to lobby for government-run health care linked to left-wing billionaire George Soros. And yes, the same HCAN directing its mob to “drown out” opponents at town hall meetings.

*SEIU member. Yes, wonder of wonders, this randomly chosen questioner just happened to be a member of the Purple Shirt Army that poured $80 million in independent expenditures into Democrat coffers, made 4.4 million phone calls for Obama, sent out more than 2.5 million Obama mailings during the 2008 campaign, and dispatched thugs to drown out town hall protesters.

Here’s how the tough exchange went down:

Q Hi, Mr. President. I’m a member of SEIU and I’m down here in Fairfax County working on Change That Works. What can I do, as a member of the union, to help you with your reform bill?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate the question..

Of course he did.

In March, the White House conducted a similar health reform town hall with more human Obamacare props (full transcript here). Five lucky questioners were chosen “randomly” to talk directly with the president in the East Room about their concerns, including:

*Linda Bock. She’s a registered nurse — and a card-carrying member of the SEIU in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

*Carlos Del Toro. Via WaPo: “In 2007, Del Toro stood as a Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, but did not win. A supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primaries, he backed Obama against McCain in the general, endorsing him in an Oct. 24, 2008 op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.”

*Tom Sawner. I’ll let him speak for himself:

Sir, I’m Tom Sawner. I’m a service-disabled veteran, small-business owner in Arlington, Virginia. My company, Educational Options, works with public schools. We serve more than 200,000 at-risk kids within public schools, providing online content, partnering with teachers, and I was honored to serve on your education platform committee.

THE PRESIDENT: Wonderful.

*Bonnee Breese. Public school teacher, prominent AFT union member, and member of the 11,626-person Pennsylvania for Obama page on Facebook.

*Sergio Salmeron. Democrat National Committee member and community blogger at Organizing for America.

Obama World: Land of Amazing Coincidences!

***

Remember, people. It’s the Chicago way:

David Axelrod has long been known for his political magic. Through his AKP&D Message & Media consultancy, the campaign veteran has advised a succession of Democratic candidates since 1985, and he’s now chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama’s bid for President. But on the down low, Axelrod moonlights in the private sector.

From the same address in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, Axelrod operates a second business, ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate clients to tilt public opinion their way. He and his partners consider virtually everything about ASK to be top secret, from its client roster and revenue to even the number of its employees. But customers and public records confirm that it has quarterbacked campaigns for the Chicago Children’s Museum, ComEd, Cablevision, and AT&T.

ASK’s predilection for operating in the shadows shows up in its work. On behalf of ComEd and Comcast, the firm helped set up front organizations that were listed as sponsors of public-issue ads. Industry insiders call such practices “Astroturfing,” a reference to manufacturing grassroots support. Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 42nd Ward, who has been battling the Children’s Museum’s relocation plans, describes ASK as “the gold standard in Astroturf organizing. This is an emerging industry, and ASK has made a name for itself in shaping public opinion and manufacturing public support.”

Culture. Of. Corruption.

Posted in: Health care, SEIU

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#101

On August 12th, 2009 at 2:02 pm, Reg.conservative said:

lgm do you think his town hall was real,honest? You had to have tickets to get in. Has he looked at the bill?
Save money, have split screen and he can ask HIMSELF QUESTIONS!
#102

On August 12th, 2009 at 2:06 pm, T-Bone said:

LGM, Are you including the money taken from peoples paychecks in places like Norway, Sweden, Freance, etc that subsidize the direct out of pocket costs of health care? Norway, Cuba, Holland, and Sweden take about 1/2 of your paycheck in income taxes. Denmark takes about 63%. And with payroll taxes those countries take more than 70% of what people earn. Proper math of costs includes all those variables as well.

And I know you didn’t account for those if you make a claim that other countries cost less. Factor that in and then tell me other countires cost less. You can’t do it. Your claim is false and misleading. I am reporting you to the white house so expect a tax audit next year and possible FBI surveillance.
#103

On August 12th, 2009 at 2:12 pm, Tuesday said:

Astroturfing at its very best.

Also professionals in projection. They know they could never fire up grassroots like the opposition does. They have to rely on astroturfing and pretending everyone does it, too. Only problem, they would not even admit to doing it, even when caught red-handed, over and over again.

They forget that pointing a finger at another means three of the fingers of that same hand point back at the pretender!
#104

On August 12th, 2009 at 2:14 pm, CJ said:

Wow. No wonder this guy was elected. No matter how random the sample, it always comes out 100% Obama supporters. I can’t figure out how McCain got 47% of the vote when everyone in America is an Obama supporter. Must have been the evil Diebold.
#106

On August 12th, 2009 at 3:26 pm, Flyoverman said:

On

August 12th, 2009 at 1:48 pm, lgm said:

Your whole premise is irrelevant.

Your criticisms of the current system is like complaining that the patient is anemic. Yes, he may be and there are several treatments that will cure him of his anemia.

However, a government run socialist healthcare solution is the equivalent of bleeding the patient. It’s stupid, idiotic and destructive.

Therefore, it’s pointless to discuss anything with you if your assumption is government healthcare is the solution.
#110

On August 12th, 2009 at 5:13 pm, T-Bone said:

He has a solution. Unfortunately, neither he, Obama, or the Democrats can define the problem they have the solution for.

If you don’t know what the problem is you are trying to fix, you are just pissing into the wind.

Is the problem health care, is it insurance, is it millions not insured, is it millions without care, is it people making bad choices, is it unfortunate instances, is it preexisting conditions, is it that people get catastrophic illnesses?

What is it please? You must define the problem before you can suggest alternatives for solving it.

The problem as Dems see it has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with Democrats in power controlling whatever they want to.

Sheeples like LGM have bought into the Dems suggestion that health care is bad and they are the ones to fix it by increasing their control and power over people. Just plain common sense will tell you that is absurd.
#117

On August 13th, 2009 at 3:14 am, emjem24 said:

lgm said:
Pathetic. The MM crowd wouldn’t know an actual issue if it came out of the mouth of Rush Limbaugh himself.

The master of liberal crocodile tears and faux supporter of our military is going to lecture us on actual issues? Rush Limbaugh must scare the hell out of you is he’s the only thing you can use in your “argument.” Make sure you “share” your thoughts with all those independents and Dems who don’t share your trust in government healthcare.

The fact is that our health care is fantastically inefficient. It costs twice as much as those of other advanced countries and is no better. This is the fact independent of what your oppo-researchers turn up about a person asking a question at a townhall.

That fact is that government programs like the military HMO Tricare and the VA system aren’t only fantastically inefficient but loaded with fraud, waste, abuse, and incompetence. I’d rather go to Walmart for my medication than have to be on a Tricare medication waitlist like I would’ve done had I not gone to the private sector. My husband really shouldn’t have to see a different doctor every time they check him out to see if he’s medically ready for deployment or have to use a freaking interpreter because the military would rather import foreign doctors instead of investing in more home grown ones.

Tricare is so fantastically inefficient that there is little transparency in their claims process. Because many military families move every few years, there’s always the possibility that Tricare will stiff the private providers and then whatever balance is left on a medical bill, if not discovered or weeded through in time, ends up on one’s credit report. I discovered this painful reality after my husband and I moved, Tricare did not reimburse the provider and communicate this fact to me, and I found out the amount owed was given to a collection agency looking for me. It took me a year to unsort this mess and restore my credit.

Then, there are the stories of government healthcare that don’t get enough mention… such as the airmen who lost his two legs after a botched gall bladder operation. I’m sure you can google it since you’re the master of all things google.

You, and your fellow liberal luminaries can hunt up every sob story and hard case scenario about our “fantastically inefficient” healthcare system, but they’ll never beat what military families encounter. We don’t need a new healthcare system, we need structural changes to the current one.

Trust that the only liberal solution to a problem is to create a new system to sweep the old problems into. Yeah, that sounds like the ticket.
#121

On August 13th, 2009 at 12:18 pm, lgm said:

stillontheroad said (#69):

I have been to Singapore and 99% of their Doctors are either trained in the US or all of their advanced medical Training is done here in the US.

Maybe not 99%.

T-Bone said (#72):

Are you including the money taken from peoples paychecks in places like Norway, Sweden, Freance,…Proper math of costs includes all those variables as well.

Yes, health care costs include those paid from tax money. They include all money spent by anyone on health care in that country.