Greg Abbott Fights Obamacare at Republican Mailhouse
Today in your dog-bites-man news: Texas Attorney General and governor hair apparent Greg Abbott appeared at an Austin business today to complain about Obamacare. The event was sponsored by Americans for Prosperity-Texas, a corporate-funded conservative group thats taking on Enroll America, a non-profit group thats going door to door to coax uninsured people to sign up for insurance under Obamacare. In an email yesterday, Peggy Venable of AFP-Texas described Enroll America as a new group thats includes (sic) several health insurance industry executives on its board along with former Obama operatives.
Like every other Texas GOP politician running for statewide office, Abbott has enlisted Obama as a campaign opponent in the absence of a Democratic opponent. On the issues page of his campaign site, he puts end(ing) Obamacare at the top of the list. Today, he said, We need to do all we can to get rid of Obamacare and replace it with a better law, according to San Antonio Express-News reporter Peggy Fikac, but dodged a question about whether he approves of Ted Cruzs plan to shut down the government to defund the health care law.
Abbott spoke at Texas Mailhouse, a bulk-mailing firm that, just coincidentally Im sure, does a brisk business in sending out mailers for Republican politicians, including Abbott. Since 2000, Texas Mailhouse has been paid nearly $538,000 by politiciansalmost exclusively Republicanand business PACs, according to Texans for Public Justice. Texas Mailhouse owner Bob Thomas also runs Thomas Graphics, a Republican direct-mail firm that has collected more than $458,000 from Abbotts campaigns since 2000, according to the Texas Tribune.
Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was at Austin City Hall drumming up support for the Affordable Care Act. She hinted that the Obama administration is open to working out a compromise on Medicaid expansion, which Rick Perry, Greg Abbott and most GOP-ers in Texas have rejected, leaving an estimated 1.5 million Texans uninsured.
More at http://www.texasobserver.org/greg-abbott-fights-obamacare-at-republican-mailhouse/ .