Senate GOP Launching New Campaign Against Health Care LawBy David M. Drucker
Roll Call Staff
May 13, 2010, 4:14 p.m.
Senate Republicans are poised to try to reignite the health care debate by launching a coordinated political messaging offensive to target Democrats and the White House for what they contend are the new law’s onerous consequences.
A group of Republican Senators who played key roles in the yearlong fight over health care legislation met Thursday in Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) office to discuss the strategy. Under the slogan “second opinion,” Republicans plan to communicate their message on multiple fronts, including on the Senate floor, in press conferences, via the Internet and through television and radio appearances.
A Republican Senate aide described the effort as intended “to draw attention to the consequences of the health care law that the White House hopes people miss.”
Democrats rebuked the strategy as typical of what the Republicans offered throughout the contentious health care debate. “I guess it takes Republicans a ‘second opinion’ to ignore all the benefits of the new law,” a Democratic Senate aide said. “Their second opinion pretty much sounds like their first opinion — just the same old rehashed obstructionism at its worst.”
The Republicans’ latest public relations offensive had been in the works since President Barack Obama signed the health care overhaul into law in late March, but their complete roll out was delayed while Senators focused on financial reform legislation. Until now, the Republicans’ pushback has been largely conducted by the GOP leadership’s press operation.