Massie Directs Constituents to Anti-Obamacare Website o' Lies

So, one of Teabagger Tommy's constituents asked the Northern Kentucky repug congress critter for help signing up for Obamacare, and this is what he received:

I am writing in response to the email we received from you ... about the Affordable Care Act.

After doing a little research, I found this website and I think that it will be helpful in answering your questions.  Please see below.

http://obamacarefacts.com/howdoes-obamacare-work.php

"After doing a little research"? Really? Did they somehow miss the tons of information the administration has sent to congressional offices about healthcare.gov and how their constituents can find out everything there? Did they miss the publicity about kynect.gov, Kentucky's own portal for signing up for the ACA health exchange?

 

And how exactly did they do this "research?"  If they googled "Affordable Care Act," the first non-ad entry is Wikipedia, and the second entry is the Department of Health and Human Services.  "obamacarefacts.com" does not show up on the first page of results. Or the second page. Or the third page.

It is, however, the fifth entry on the first page of google results for "obamacare." Why do I suspect they did no googling at all, but had "obamacarefacts.com" sticky-noted to their computer to respond to all ACA inquiries?

Maybe because "obamacarefacts.com" is a fraud. It purports to "explain" "obamacare" without ever using the law's real name, without directing you to whitehouse.gov, where you will find referrals to http://www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform for general information and https://www.healthcare.gov for how to sign up.

 

When I emailed healthcare.gov to ask about "obamacarefacts.com," I got this response:

Websites that have ".com" extensions are commercial websites. They generally are not part of the government.

I don't know why you would have been referred to that resource by a congressman's office.

That's OK - I think I do.  "obamacarefacts.com" very cleverly twists the "facts" about the ACA to make it sound catastrophic without ever explicitly saying so. It goes into great detail about the costs of the ACA to the country and to anyone who signs up for it, but offers no actual assistance for doing so, and no referrals to the government websites that actually do help you sign up.

But the hilarious part is that you can't tell who is behind it.  As commenter sickandtired wrote on a different anti-obamacare site:

I looked at obamacarefacts.com and what I saw was a website run by “private citizens….have no funding or agenda”. But they neglect to say who they are. Most websites have a site map and a few things that talk “About Us” or “Who We Are”, etc. Nothing on this site. Can’t find a bit about who they are. Yet they have an email address looking for contributions. Cannot believe that people in their right minds would send money to anonymous “private citizens”. There is nothing on that website that costs $$$ – all public domain artwork. Something fishy. I have been trying to find who is the source of this website without much luck.

My guess is the Koch Brothers, who have carefully instructed their minions in Congress to direct all their constituents to a site that will thoroughly confuse and discourage them from even trying to sign up or find out anything else.

Are you uninsured? Paying too much for private health insurance? Hoping you can find affordable health care through the Affordable Care Act? Don't ask your repug congress critter. He wants you to fuck off and die in a fire.

Steve Benen:

When Reuters reported last week that Republicans and their allies "are mobilizing ... to dissuade uninsured Americans from obtaining health coverage," it caused a bit of a stir. After all, what kind of people would invest time and energy into convincing struggling families to turn down access to affordable health care?

Who would be so callous as to put partisan spite over the basic health care needs of their community?

Well, now we know. The Dayton Daily News has hidden the story behind a paywall, but the paper reported yesterday on groups like the "Citizens' Council for Health Freedom," which is rallying behind the "Refuse to Enroll" campaign.

With time running out, opponents of the Affordable Care Act have taken to the airwaves in Ohio and elsewhere with ad campaigns not only attacking the bill's merits but also actively encouraging uninsured Americans not to sign up for coverage under the health care law.

The Obama administration has acknowledged the success of the law, commonly referred to as Obamacare, depends in large part on broad-based participation in federal and state-run health exchanges that will begin selling government-subsidized health plans to the uninsured on Oct. 1.

The anti-enrollment campaigns reflect the resignation and desperation of many Obamacare opponents who have given up hope of a government repeal or court-ordered injunction to stop full implementation of the law beginning next year.

 Remember this next year when repug congressional candidates talk about "what Kentuckians need" and "what Kentuckians want" and "what's best for Kentuckians." They care only about what the Koch Brothers need and what corporate criminals want and what's best for themselves.