Undaunted by the fact that the
millions they spent so far haven't moved the needle against Democrats at all, the Kochs are sinking a big chunk more into their anti-Obamacare habit in New Hampshire, Louisiana, Colorado and Michigan. And they are also picking up a whole new bunch of
Pinnochios from Glenn Kessler at the
Washington Post while they're at it.
That ad up top is running in New Hampshire, and focuses on the fact that just one insurer, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, chose to participate and has limited providers. It did so in order to keep costs for itself—and for customers—as low as possible, which of course AFP isn't going to tell viewers. The real whopper in this one is the claim that premiums are up 90 percent in the entire state. Kesslers generously gives it two Pinnochios though the 90 percent claim "is worthy of Three or even Four Pinocchios." That claim, he notes, has been roundly debunked and "mocked" in local media.
This ad is from Colorado, but an essentially identical variation runs in Michigan, too. (The Colorado ad is the one they
despicably used an Aurora tragedy picture in. They've since
removed the image.) These two ads fall back on the Kochs' old habit of making "vague allegations of people losing doctors or 'thousands' of dollars in higher health-care premiums," claims that aren't substantiated. Kessler gives these two Pinnochios because they are full of unproven assertions about what the law "could" mean for people who have had old policies cancelled, and ignore the fact that the administration has allowed states to extend those cancelled policies for a few years and that most of the people AFP is counting as having received cancellation letters also were offered a renewal option.
That's the last ad, from Lousiana, and is the only one in quite a while to feature an actual "victim," Christopher Schiff, a sympathetic Iraq veteran. The Kochs have mostly stopped using real people in their ads because all those ads were so easily and roundly debunked (most notably the
Julie Boonstra fiasco). Schiff claims that his insurance costs are "going way up," but doesn't provide the details of what "way up" means. Kessler is holding off on a verdict with this one, because the information AFP and Schiff have been providing on how much he's paying in premiums now versus with his old plan is conflicting. Of course, neither has provided information about what his old plan offered in terms of benefits or total out-of-pocket costs. That's where the Kochs have always tripped up in their real-people stories before, so stay tuned to this one.
What none of the Kochs' ads feature, of course, is what the various Republicans they're shilling for would do for all the people they want to take insurance away from.
