It's Simple...

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you know that the launch of the ACA’s online health care insurance marketplace was an unmitigated disaster. Republicans are lining up to skewer it faster than attendants at a shish kebab BBQ--here is only the most recent instance. As of today, Obama is scrambling to placate members of his own party unhappy with the way the ACA’s launch has turned out. Fixing the health care website could potentially take weeks of work (back in late October, anyway), and Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been crucified, lambasted, derided—there are a lot of really colorful words that could describe what’s being done to Ms. Sebelius.

Interest groups have been scrambling to react. The most visible form of interest group spending has been in the form of anti-Obamacareads run by conservative groups such as Heritage Action for America, an advocacy group spun off from the Heritage Foundation. Americans For Prosperity, another such group, has spent 1.1 million dollars thus far on network and television ads targeting Obamacare. This is one group, on one specific avenue of communication (which excludes radio and the internet, for example). The Senate Conservatives Fund has spent 3 million dollars so far. It’s hard to know who the heaviest hitters will end up being, given that the war is still ongoing. On the other side of battle lines, we have figures such as Organizing For Action, a nonprofit, airing pro-Obamacare advertisements. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend 40 million dollars this year encouraging people to enroll in the ACA this year. Not exactly attack ads, but it’s clear that between the federal government and advocacy groups, somebody has more funding at their disposal.

But there’s also more going on behind the scenes apart from real-time advertisement mud-slinging. Some of you might remember the government shutdown last month. Ever since GOP congressional victories in 2010, conservative groups have been looking to defund or dismantle Obamacare. Gatherings by groups such as the aforementioned Heritage Action and AFP, along with others like FreedomWorks or Generation Opportunity, drafted strategy that placed a government shutdown as a strategic tool to be used to defeat the ACA. Charles and David Koch, a pair of billionaire brothers, have financed the project, giving 200 million dollars to non-profits fighting the ACA. Said groups have engaged in grassroots activities—burning fake health care insurance cards, circulating phone call scripts to be used in conversations with Congressional offices. The Koch brothers deny that they were trying to defund the government, but they did fund the groups that planned it. Did these groups succeed in their efforts to defund Obamacare? No. Of course not.

...we defund the Obamacare.

Ironically, it’s only now, after the flurry of planning and funding is over, that the ACA seems to be at its most vulnerable. A plan three years in the making couldn’t bring it down, but it looks like government incompetence and a half-assed web design team are doing more to earn the public’s ire than the Koch brother’s mountains of wealth. Conservative interest groups are certainly capitalizing on the situation, and it remains to be seen how effective their attacks will be. 

Citations

Alman, Ashley. "Conservative Groups Pour Millions Of Dollars Into Anti-Obamacare Ads."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

LaFraniere, Sharon, Robert Pear, and Ian Austen. "Contractors See Weeks of Work on Health Site." The New York Times. N.p., 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Little, Morgan October. "Koch Industries Deflects Blame on Government Shutdown." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 09 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Parker, Ashley, Michael D. Shear, and Robert Pear. "A Contrite Obama Unveils a Health Fix." New York Times. N.p., 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Stolberg, Sheryl Gay. "Sebelius Thrust Into Firestorm on Exchanges." The New York Times. N.p., 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Stolberg, Sheryl G., and Mike Mcintire. "A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning."The New York Times. N.p., 6 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.