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When my business partner and I formed Donkey On The Edge Productions a year ago, it was our hope that we would be able to parlay our years of advertising experience into a progressive advocacy production company. So far, we’ve been lucky enough to work with Courage Campaign on a couple of videos and now we’re thrilled to be working with Blue America on a project that I am so excited about.
This year’s fight for real health care reform is arguably the biggest battle the modern progressive movement has fought or ever will fight. As the focus shifts from the House to the Senate where we have a putative "filibuster proof" majority but where conservative Democrats are threatening to join a Republican filibuster, we must hold those Democrats’ feet to the fire. So when Blue America approached us about producing an ad to help pressure Senator Blanche Lincoln to allow an up or down vote on the public option, we jumped at the chance.
Armed with the PCCC’s & DFA’s recent poll of Arkansans’ views of Senator Lincoln as well as the amount of money she’s taken from the insurance industry over the years, we produced an ad that The Democratic Strategist called:
…very tough, and graphically amusing, depicting Senator Lincoln all gussied up like a NASCAR driver, only the ads pasted all over her jumpsuit are for her many health care contributors.
You can watch it below:
One of the great things about this whole project is that it truly is people-powered. Blue America is using online donations to air the ad throughout Arkansas and we’re hoping to air it for another couple weeks. Howie Klein posted a great diary about how they’re targeting the ad in Arkansas and how far even a very small contribution can go.
Blanche Lincoln depends on the heavily Democratic counties of eastern Arkansas to win her races– Crittenden, Saint Francis, Lee, Phillips, Desha, Chicot and Woodruff. She couldn’t win re-election without them. And the people in this part of the state are overwhelmingly in favor of meaningful healthcare reform. They favor the public option by massive numbers. And it’s crucial that they understand that it’s Blanche Lincoln who has been working against meaningful reform– and doing so on behalf of the insurance and medical industries that have been flooding her campaign coffers with "contributions." [...]
So… would you help us keep our ads running in eastern Arkansas through the Memphis media market? The most expensive spots are $8.00! And like I said earlier, CNN’s American Morning is $3.00. So is Wolfie’s Situation Room and Studio B With Shepard Smith, The Live Desk, and Cashin’ In on Fox. Speaking of Fox, though, you could consider a splurge and let us put more ads up on Huckabee– this is Arkansas we’re talking about– which costs $8.00 a spot.
Will you help us keep our ad up on the air in Arkansas? You can contribute at ActBlue here. As Howie says, even very small amounts will help!
Now that we see the Senate health reform bill, Blanche Lincoln truly has no excuse not to at least let it go to the floor for an up or down vote. The cost of the bill is under President Obama’s $900 billion threshold, it reduces the deficit by $127 billion over ten years AND Arkansas can even opt out of the public option if they so choose. Now is the time to keep the pressure on and keep our ad up on the air in Arkansas.
2 Comments
Old Blank Blanch, always has an excuse brian dead.
Glad to see your effort and that you’re having fun at it. BUT AFAIC, both House and Senate bills do NOTHING but institutionalize the insurance companies UNLESS States opt out and create their own single payer plans as we here in CA are going to do.
From the news desk:
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I’m now reading the link to politico and came across this to be implemented in 2010:
“Create a temporary re-insurance program to support coverage for early retirees” ; what is that about? I know most FDL’ers are not even close to being ‘early retirees’ but I had to do such to survive as I couldn’t find work to support myself.
And the SS Admin is saying more and more citizens are taking early SS because of the employment situation so what is the ‘temp re-insurance program’?
Oh, and did you read this? “No out-of-pocket requirements can exceed those in Health Savings Accounts,” ; man,oh,man; see here and then re-evaluate the ‘bronze’ plan.
And this certainly obviates the idea of ‘choice’: “Individuals qualified to receive tax credits for Exchange coverage must be ineligible for affordable, employer-sponsored insurance any form of public insurance coverage.” AND “If an employer offer of coverage exceeds 9.8 percent of a worker‟s family income, or the employer pays less than 60 percent of the premium, the worker may enroll in the Exchange and receive credits.”
“states may also seek waivers to explore other reform options”; well here in CA we’re going to be pushing single payer AGAIN and hopefully won’t have a jackass for governor when it AGAIN passes.
And somebody explain this as it seems contradictory to itself: “If an employer offer of coverage exceeds 9.8 percent of a worker‟s family income, or the employer pays less than 60 percent of the premium, the worker may enroll in the Exchange and receive credits.”
And this explicitly disallows individuals from having more than $2500 deducted as pre-tax from their paychecks in an employers ‘Flexible spending accounts: “Limiting Health FSA Contributions: This provision limits the amount of contributions to health FSAs to $2,500 per year.” So they pay more income tax.
MORE ’screw the seniors’: “Eliminating the Deduction for Employer Part D Subsidy: This provision eliminates the deduction for the subsidy for employers who maintain prescription drug plans for their Medicare Part D eligible retirees.”
All of the above is from “a somewhat more robust explanation and an implementation timeline.” which is this http://www.politico.com/static/PPM110_091119_long_summary.html
Based on all that has occurred and been said, neither Congress nor the ObamaRahma Admin ever heard the phrase ‘keep it simple,stupid’; all the machinations and new laws -without really specifying how such will be enforced- are SO UNNECESSARY when compared to going to single payer or Medicare for All.
Perfect example of how to take the ingredients for a nice cake and turn it into unleavened bread.