Behind the Ad: Republicans say having affordable health care will ruin your life

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.)

Who: Citizens for a Strong New Hampshire

Where: New Hampshire

What's going on: A Republican super-PAC is airing its first ad attacking New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) over her support for Obama's heath care program. They call her the "deciding vote for ObamaCare," in an ad that features "a family deciding what to cut from a meal following hypothetical cuts to their income due to the healthcare law."

The ad is build on the "requirement in the healthcare law that employers have to provide healthcare benefits to part-time employees working 30 hours of more." Predictably, many employers have said they will cut hours so they won't have to pay the additional costs.

The point is that you shouldn't blame your employer for being a prick for slashing your hours in order to avoid having to provide health care. You should blame the president and those who support him for trying to make sure that unforeseen heath care catastrophes don't bankrupt you and your family for the rest of your lives. 

This is the same kind of thinking that says that the minimum wage should be kept very low in order to promote job growth. It may mean you can't feed yourself or your family, but at least you'll have a job. 

Unfortunately, in New Hampshire this kind of approach might work.

The Hill:

A near-majority, 49 percent, of New Hampshire adults oppose the [health care] law, while 34 percent favor it and 17 percent are neutral or don't know enough about it, according to a poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center last month.

Sen. Shaheen continues to be popular in the state and the GOP hasn't found a marquee challenger yet, so this may not have the desired effect. It's so damn sad that people can be fooled into believing that the big bad government is the villain because it wants to give people a chance not to have their lives ruined by potential medical costs they can't pay.

 

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)