The far right starts another phony fight

For some time, the right-wing has been trying to paint mainstream Republicans as amenable to keeping Obamacare. No, really. They suggest the John Boehners and Mitch McConnells of the political world would be content to keep the health-care law, maybe just fiddle around the edges. (One of those accused of such treachery, Doug Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum, says that is hogwash: “Nobody has written, researched, testified, or whined more about . . . ObamaCare than me.”) The far right accused opponents of the shutdown as, in effect, voting for Obamacare. This is all poppycock, but it’s worth asking what the hard-liners are up to.

As a starting point, every GOP congressman and senator has voted multiple times to get rid of Obamacare, defund it, eliminate the individual mandate as a way of gutting it, stall it or offer “outs” from the mandate to, again, undermine the exchanges. It’s a ruse, a sneaky way of “accommodating” Obamacare, I guess. Moreover, if you look at all the Republican proposals for replacing Obamacare, they focus on creating patient-centered health care, eliminating the individual mandate and removing a minimum definition of “insurance.” This is true of everyone from Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). There is no “Obamacare lite” anywhere to be seen. These and other conservatives (including every single House member in two budget votes) want to limit increases in Medicaid, block grant it and let the states experiment with various cost-effective methods for providing health care to the poor.

American Action Forum is RINO Central.

The Den of Vipers:

Republicans for Immigration Reform

website: http://republicansforimmigrationreform.org/

Board of Directors

US Rep. Carlos Gutierrez (D-IL), Chairman
  • House Gang of Eight
The Honorable Spencer Abraham
Gov. Luis Furtuno, Puerto Rico
  • also board member of American Action Network
Mr. Fred Malek, Chairman, Thayer Lodging Group
  • Founder of American Action Network, Chairman of American Action Forum
Mr. Charlie Spies, Clark Hill PLC

Advisory Board

US Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL)
The Honorable Steve Preston
The Honorable Margaret Spellings
Mr. Edwin Wang, Accretive Capital

Partnership for a New American Economy

website: http://www.renewoureconomy.org/

Co-Chairs:

Bill Marriott, CEO & Chairman Marriott
Bob Iger, CEO & President Disney
Jim McNerney, CEO & Chairman Boeing
Julian Castro, Mayor San Antonio, Texas
Michael Bloomberg, Mayor New York, New York
Michael Nutter, Mayor Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Rupert Murdoch, CEO & Chairman Newscorp
Steve Ballmer, CEO Microsoft

The web of RINOs and Rats goes deeper....

Ever hear of FWD.US?

FWD.US was created by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. He has joined with "key leaders in the tech community to promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy—including comprehensive immigration reform and education reform." (http://www.fwd.us/about_us)

Their list of supporters is a who's who of tech companies. (http://www.fwd.us/our_supporters)

Their team in Washington DC:

Rob Jesmer, former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee
Alida Garcia, former National Latino Vote Deputy Director of Obama For America's 2012 reelection campaign
Kate Hansen, former communications director for the Democratic Governors Association
Scott Sloofman, former Deputy Director of the Republican National Committee War Room

(http://www.fwd.us/washington_dc)

FWD.US has two subsidiary organizations, Americans for a Conservative Direction, and Council for American Job Growth. (http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/22211-has-zuckerberg-gone-conservative.html)

Americans for a Conservative Direction board members are:

Former Governor Haley Barbour, also adviser to FWD.US
Sally Bradshaw, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's Chief of Staff
Joel Kapln, Vice President of US Public Policy at Facebook
Dan Senor, former chief adviser to Representative Paul Ryan on the Romney-Ryan 2012 campaign
Rob Jesmer, former Executive Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2008-2012.

(http://www.americansforaconservativedirection.com/#about)

In May FWD.us began running ads the immigration bill pushed by the so-called Senate “Gang of 8.” Politico reports that Americans for a Conservative Direction will spend over $1 million to push the ad in states including Texas, Florida, Iowa, and Kentucky. (http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/07/Republican-group-Facebook-immigration-bill)

Another group running ads is the American Action Network. The American Action Network was founded by Fred Malek, National Finance Committee co-chair of John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. AAN created the American Action Forum and the Hispanic Leadership Network. These groups share office space with the Karl Rove affiliated Crossroads GPS/American Crossroads.

These groups have overlapping leadership and membership.

		American Action Network	American Action Forum	Hispanic Leadership Network
Former Senator Norm Coleman (MN)		Y	Y
	Chairman Of Counsel, Hogan Lovells US LLP	Chairman, American Action Network
Fred Malek		Y	Y
	Chairman, Thayer Lodging Group	Founder, American Action Network	Chairman, Forum Board
Former Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL)			Y	Y
	President, Jeb Bush & Assoc.
Congressman Raúl Labrador (R-ID)				Y
	House Gang of Eight
Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL)				Y
	House Gang of Eight
Congressman Francisco Canseco (R-TX)				Y

House Gang of Eight

John Carter (R-TX)
Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Sam Johnson (R-TX)
Raul Labrador (R-ID)

Xavier Becerra (D-CA)
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
John Yarmuth (D-KY)

Texas Rep Francisco Canseco has a hidden relation to the House Gang of Eight, membership in the Hispanic Leadership Network.

The Hispanic Leadership Network developed the "Earned legal status", and "undocumented immigrant" talking points.

http://hispanicleadershipnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/HLN-Dos-and-Donts-of-Immigration-Reform-Mes-saging.pdf

http://hispanicleadershipnetwork.org/?page_id=15
http://americanactionnetwork.org/about
http://americanactionforum.org

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3083705/posts

Sponsors of lobbying push are:

United States Chamber of Commerce
FWD.us, PAC set up by Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook
Partnership for a New Economy, led Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Marriott Jr.

Other particpants:

Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union
Frank Keating, president of the American Bankers Association
Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform

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