Chamber To Spend $50M On Anti-Health Care Reform Campaign

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http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/chamber-to-spend-50m-on-anti-health-care-reform-campaign.php#more

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will spend $50 million on an election campaign around bashing health care reform that the Wall Street Journal called "an aggressive strategy to blunt the impact of the new law." The new push for the 2010 midterm elections adds to a more than $144 million ad campaign the chamber mounted on behalf of its business membership in the last year against passage of the measure.

The Wall Street Journal detailed a letter that Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue sent board members outlining the strategy. "The Chamber is going to carry a message across the country that says the health care debate is not over," Mr. Donohue wrote, according to the Journal. He wrote members that the chamber will put together a team of staffers to evaluate the federal regulations included in the law.

The chamber was a major player in ad spending and campaigns to challenge health care reform during the long debate in Congress, and the news is a signal that won't let up any time soon. As we've been reporting, health care and charges to repeal the law or declare reform unconstitutional in court have emerged as a key 2010 campaign theme.

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"Now that health care decisions are in their hands, the American people will not be fooled and aren't going to hand over their health care to the insurance industry again - no matter how much money its front groups like the Chamber spend or how many lies they tell," Sevugan said.

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1. Must be nice to be able to waste 500,000 Benjamins. n/t