Dems Rip Insurance Industry, GOP Over News About AHIP/cnn's Alex Castellanos

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/democratic-national-committee/dems-rip-insurance-industry-gop-over-castellanos/

Dems Rip Insurance Industry, GOP Over News About Alex Castellanos


As expected, Democrats are jumping on the news today that an on-air CNN commentator doubled as the insurance industry’s ad buyer, broadening the attack on the industry and linking it to the GOP, which also enlisted the help of that same commentator to craft anti-reform talking points.

DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan points out that the CNN commentator, GOP consultant Alex Castellanos, who placed a huge AHIP ad buy, also wrote a memo for the Republican National Committee advising Republicans to paint reform as a menacing government takeover that would destroy Medicare.

Dems argue that Castellanos’ work for AHIP and the GOP shows that they share the goal of killing reform — and that they are united in their determination to stop at nothing to make that happen.

“The news that Mr. Castellanos is a highly paid consultant for the Insurance Lobby sheds piercing light on the motivations of the Republican party in wholeheartedly adopting a strategy he authored to intentionally delay insurance reform in order to kill it,” Sevugan emailed me.

“Whether it’s paying for a supposedly independent report that was purposefully skewed to kill reform or paying hired hands to attack reform on tv while passing themselves off independent commentators, the insurance lobby and their agents in the GOP, have proven that they are willing to say and do anything — including misleading the American people — to protect their record profits,” Sevugan added. “They have zero credibility.”

It’s unclear how much dust this will kick up — as black eyes go, it’s nowhere near as bad as AHIP’s “study” on the reform proposals — but it does provide Dems with a convenient attack line linking the industry and the Republican Party. We’ll see where it goes.