Ads Critical Of The Health Law Trigger Attacks And Counter Attacks

The Washington Post fact checks another Americans for Prosperity ad featuring a so-called "Obamacare" victim, and the AFP president responds to criticism waged at the group by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.  

The Washington Post's The Fact Checker: The Missing Context In Yet Another AFP Ad Featuring Yet Another Obamacare Victim
The Fact Checker is a little late in fact checking this ad—our colleagues at PolitiFact looked closely at it earlier in February—but given the controversy over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's claim that the "vast majority" of the AFP ads are "lies," we decided it was necessary to delve into the facts behind it. It certainly packs a punch, with Lamb's personal anger at the president apparent .... Why was the plan [she lost] so inexpensive? For one thing, it had a $25,000 cap on annual benefits. It also had no limit on out-of-pocket costs, and it would only cover generic medications (Kessler, 2/28).

CNN: AFP President: Reid Tries To 'Silence And Intimidate' Americans
One day after Senate Majority Harry Reid repeatedly attacked the conservative billionaire activists, the Koch brothers, and their well-financed conservative organization Americans for Prosperity, the head of that group, Tim Phillips, said Reid is using scare tactics against detractors. "For a politician to try and silence and intimidate an American citizen solely because they don't like the facts that are coming out and the story they are telling says more about the politician than it says about Americans for Prosperity," Phillips told CNN in a sit-down interview near his office in Arlington, Virginia Thursday morning (Caldwell, 2/27).

In related news -

NBC News: GOP Weighs Adding to 'Obamacare' Attack In Midterms
Republicans in Congress are counting on "Obamacare" being the gift that keeps on giving in this fall's midterm elections, though some others in the GOP question whether that's enough. Decrying the Affordable Care Act has become a fixture of the GOP's election year strategy. To boot, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, opened his press conference on Thursday decrying the "devastating consequences" of the law for Americans. But some Republicans are questioning whether staking the 2014 campaigns on Obamacare alone is a wise wager (Russert, 2/28).