Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Evangelical version of "Harry and Louise".
You've got to take a look at this TV spot put out by the Family Research Council. Watch it here. It blasts Obama Health Care with an abortion twist. Pretty clever. I had no idea the famous 90's couple of Harry and Louise are now Evangelicals. I wonder if they speak in tongues.
The Obama administration may not like it but FRC gets style points for creativity.
The ad is going to run in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana, and Nebraska. The group's President Tony Perkins says this:
"In a world of health care rationing, the elderly, the handicapped and the frail are the most likely to lose their lives because care was delayed or denied. Under the government-run plans in England and Canada, the countries'sick and elderly aren't getting the care they need. As a result, their system isn't improving lives but prematurely taking them. Here in the United States, President Obama's rationing would mean that you and I could be denied basic care while our tax dollars are used to underwrite a mother choosing to end the life of her unborn child.
"On the other key life-and-death decisions there is an active commitment on the part of Senate Democratic Leadership to allow the rationing of health care. This is what the White House and Congress mean when they say they will cut costs. It means cutting off your access to health care services by creating the legal authority to do so, while stopping any provision becoming law that would prevent rationing.
Look, The White House will argue that Perkins' claim of rationing is simply bogus but the fact that the rationing argument is gaining steam and it's going to be up to the President to make the case that any sort of public option won't lead to rationing. If the health care reform bill includes a co-op option that could bode well for the administration because it takes "government takeover" language off the table and will require interest groups who are trying to kill Obama's health care reform plan to rethink their strategy with limited time.