Dems block ‘misleading, false’ GOP health care mailingfrom Raw Story Breaking News

Dems block 'misleading, false' GOP health care mailing

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/23/democrats-block-misleading-false-gop-health-care-mailing/

A "colorful" chart that also appears to be colorful in the facts department has been blocked from voter's mailboxes by Democrats, a Capital Hill newspaper reports.

Roll Call reports, "Democrats are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority's health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate. House Republicans are crying foul and claiming that the Democrats are using their majority to prevent GOP Members from communicating with their constituents."

More from Jackie Kucinich's report:

In their eight-point memo, which was obtained by Roll Call, Democrats identify a litany of areas where they believe the chart is incorrect.

For example, Democrats argue that the chart depicts a "Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund" that is "simply a recipient of IRS funds, with no outflow. … This is false."

The chart's illustration of low-income subsidies is also "misleading and false," Democrats argue.

….

The dispute over Brady's chart is being reviewed by the franking commission, which must approve any mail before it can be sent. No decision had been made on the matter by press time.

Brady adamantly denied that the chart was misleading and said Democrats are simply threatened by the content of the graphic. "I think their review was laughable," Brady said. "It's … downright false in most of the cases. The chart depicts their health care plan as their committees developed it."

A pdf of the chart can be viewed at this link.

Media Matters created a mock "colorful" chart in response called the "Organizational Chart of Conservative Media's Misinformation Plan" after documenting how conservative media outlets were spreading it.

"The conservative media's promotion of the House Republican chart recalls the media attention devoted in 1994 to a misleading chart — distributed by the office of Sen. Arlen Specter — that then-Senate Republican leader Bob Dole claimed illustrated 'what the health care bureaucracy would look like under' President Clinton's health care reform plan," Media Matters noted.