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May 19, 2013 /10 Sivan, 5773
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ObamaCare: The Propaganda Machine Revs Up

The Obama administration has contracted millions in taxpayer dollars out to PR firms for the purpose of hawking Obamacare to a reluctant public.
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Given that we the people have no control today over whether Obamacare is marketed to our emotions, it is reasonable to wonder what kinds of advertising campaigns for other government policies will be launched at us.  Can a divided Congress stop any of them?

Advertising: too dangerous in the hands of government

As the swineline post points out, Obama is not the first president to use PR firms to hype government policies (or urge citizens to do things like obtain flood insurance or buckle their seatbelts).  The Washington Times reports that the federal government has spent more than $16 billion on commercially contracted PR since 2002, much of it through non-competitive bidding.

Most of the spending under George W. Bush was by the Pentagon, although a good portion of that was on foreign-relations-oriented PR overseas.  How much of that kind of thing the Pentagon “should” be doing is part of a much larger, long-running argument about the division of labor between civilian diplomacy (State) and military diplomacy (Defense).  But HHS came in a healthy second throughout the period 2002-2011.

Advertising is a dangerous thing in the hands of the armed state.  I am no more in favor of Republican administrations spending a lot of money on it than of Democrats doing so.  With Obamacare, we have reached the fork in the road.  A government with the powers conferred by Obamacare cannot, on principle, be trusted to “advertise” its policies to us.  The inevitable descent into untrustworthy propaganda has already begun.  Until Obamacare is repealed, it will continue to get worse.

Originally published at The Optimistic Conservative.

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About the Author: J.E. Dyer is a retired US Naval intelligence officer who served around the world, afloat and ashore, from 1983 to 2004.


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2 comments so far

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2 Responses to “ObamaCare: The Propaganda Machine Revs Up”

  1. MaAi Ai says:
    November 29, 2012 at 5:26 PM

    Blown up my mind. Biggest corruption. Shrewd serpent.

  2. Charlie Hall says:
    November 29, 2012 at 6:05 PM

    These expenses are dwarfed by the amount that for profit insurers spend on marketing.

  3. Aleta L. Grenier says:
    November 30, 2012 at 1:51 AM

    It’s a disgrace…

  4. Rc Fowler says:
    December 1, 2012 at 1:12 AM

    Obama care is a disaster in the making!

  5. Joseph Salowitz says:
    December 2, 2012 at 6:36 AM

    The election results are official. YOU lost. AMERICA won! LIVE WITH IT!

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