Mitch McConnell asks pro sports to stay away from Obamacare promotion

[Costanza]

Mitch McConnell asks pro sports to stay away from Obamacare promotion
Jennifer Haberkorn

Two top Senate Republicans have sternly warned the leaders of the NFL and other sports leagues against wading into the politically volatile waters of Obamacare.

“Given the divisiveness and persistent unpopularity of the health care [law], it is difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Whip John Cornyn wrote in letters to the commissioners of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA and the chairman and chief executive officer of NASCAR.

A spokesman for the NFL responded Friday evening to say the league has no plans at this time to work with HHS on health law.

“We have responded to the letters we received from members of Congress to inform them we currently have no plans to engage in this area and have had no substantive contact with the administration about PPACA’s implementation,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told POLITICO.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had told reporters earlier this week that she is in conversations with some sports leagues about potential partnerships to promote enrollment in the president’s health law this summer and fall.

Sebelius said at the time that she has had conversations with the NFL, whose representatives are “very actively and enthusiastically engaged because they see health promotion as one of the things that is good for them and good for the country.”

Sports partnerships with the Obama administration could come at a risk. The health law still has significant opposition. And some athletes may be skeptical about being cozy with the Obama administration’s signature law.

The Boston Red Sox successfully worked with Massachusetts to advertise its insurance coverage mandate — a move the Obama administration may want to repeat.

But McConnell and Cornyn point out key differences — the Massachusetts law was bipartisan and much more popular than the 2010 federal health law.

They list several of the federal law’s flaws and suggest that it would be unusual for a major sports league to take “public sides in such a highly polarized public debate.”

“Yet given the administration’s public request of your assistance in promoting this unpopular law, we felt it important to provide you with a fuller accounting of the facts before you made the decision,” they wrote.

McConnell and Cornyn also urged the sports leaders to resist any potential “threat of policy retaliation to solicit support” by the administration.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/...way-from-obamacare-promotion-93572.html?hp=f2

 

[QueEx]

The ever constant undermining schemes of McConnell and the rest of the Gang of No, Gang of Suppression, Gang of the Invented Scandal, . . . . aw hell, too many try to list them all, just: the He Cannot Be Allowed to Succeed, at any Cost Gang -- even to the detriment of the entire country.
​

 

[TheBigOne]

These muhfuhkahs honestly believe that if they make Americans miserable by things like destroying the middle class and denying people health care, that it will help them to win.


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[spider705]

These muhfuhkahs honestly believe that if they make Americans miserable by things like destroying the middle class and denying people health care, that it will help them to win.


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Makes me think of that game of thrones line about littlefinger, where he'd see the kingdom burn just to be king of the Ashes....

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[Upgrade Dave]

Makes me think of that game of thrones line about littlefinger, where he'd see the kingdom burn just to be king of the Ashes....

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2

 

[Costanza]

I see it now. "The NBA Cares... not to involve itself at this time"

This is clearly a public service. Pro athletes promoting the ACA-- Obamacare-- is a good way to reach people about the benefits they don't know they are entitled to under settled law and this grudge match is just disgusting. They want to keep people ignorant.

We really should contact the relevant leagues and let them know that public education services are not the same as political advocacy, that no one is going to turn away from their products for doing the health care equivalent of a "Buckle up, it's the law" ad and they need not disassociate themselves with all things Obama out of fear.

 

[Costanza]

What The White House And The NBA Have To Gain In Partnering Up To Promote Obamacare
By Travis Waldron

The White House and the National Basketball Association may be teaming up to market President Obama’s health care reform law. That’s according to a report from Politico that was neither confirmed nor denied by the NBA or the Obama administration.

The report got an instant response from conservatives who mocked the idea. But for the Obama administration, the advantages of such a partnership are pretty obvious, as Politico explained: “The NBA season’s calendar tracks closely with the six-month period during which Americans have a chance to sign up for subsidized insurance around the country — beginning on Oct. 1. And NBA fans fit key demographics targeted by supporters of the health law.”

For the NBA, the advantages may seem less clear. The law, judging by conservative response and public polling, remains controversial, and taking a position on the program might risk alienating some NBA fans. But for the same demographic reasons that make the partnership appealing to the White House, it could be appealing to the NBA. Market research shows that blacks, Latinos, young adults, and Americans with low and low-middle incomes make up larger shares of the NBA’s fan base than they do of the general population, and all four of those groups are more likely to view both Obama and his policies more favorably. So while conservatives may be loud in their opposition, it’s hard to believe that their distaste for health care reform would take the form of concerted action like a boycott that would try to hurt the league economically. The NBA has embraced other issues that rankle conservatives, like climate change, environmentalism, and equal rights for LGBT Americans, without backlash.

And health care reform also gives the NBA another chance to try to demonstrate its good corporate citizenship. Sports leagues are always trying to show they care and are active in their communities, and health campaigns, like the NFL’s Play60 efforts, have been a way they’ve reached out in the past. Taking on health insurance isn’t an unprecedented issue for professional sports, either. Mitt Romney, in fact, partnered with the Boston Red Sox to market his health care law in Massachusetts in 2007. Showing that it wants its fans — those same groups that are overrepresented in NBA fandom are also more likely to go without health insurance — to have access to affordable medical care would seem a pretty good way to burnish the league’s image. And of course, people who spend less money on medical treatment have more to spend on basketball tickets.

http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2013/06/20/2190361/white-house-nba-obamacare/

 

[Costanza]

No, Conservatives, You Won’t Stop Watching Football If The NFL Markets Obamacare
By Travis Waldron

News broke last week that the Obama administration had reached out to the National Basketball Association about a partnership to promote the president’s health reform law. Now, it is seeking a similar deal with the National Football League that will involve “paid advertising and partnerships to encourage enrollment” in Obamacare’s new programs, according to The Hill.

I’ve explained why the Obama-NBA partnership makes sense for both parties, and that reasoning holds true for the NFL–and more importantly, the networks that air the games–too. Given the enormous amount of money television networks pay for the right to air football games, they’re unlikely to turn down advertising that will help them reach the break-even point on those investments. And for the Obama administration, football is a logical target. The NFL has the largest audience of any sport in America. It reaches people in demographics that the Obama administration needs to reach with basic information about. And beyond the ads, such a partnership meshes nicely with other corporate citizenship efforts the NFL has undertaken, like its health-driven Play60 campaign. Plus, it’s the law.

Conservatives, to no one’s surprise, are nevertheless outraged. The Weekly Standard’s Jeffrey Anderson said it would be “yet another reminder that football is best watched on Saturdays,” and Twitchy highlighted tweets from conservatives who said it would cause a “mass exodus of support.” “If the NFL backs Obamacare,” one Twitchy tweet says, “they can kiss this season goodbye.”

It’s unlikely the NFL is rethinking its strategy based on a few tweets, but here’s a word of advice in case they are: the idea that people are going to stop watching football because of a few pro-health care ads, most of which will likely deal more with the details of new programs instead of advocating for it on ideological grounds, is absurd. I might personally share Anderson’s view that football is, indeed, best watched on Saturdays, but the NFL is the most popular sport in America. Its TV ratings are sky-high from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. The league has endured two lockouts, the beginnings of a concussion crisis, and plenty of other on- and off-field controversies without turning the masses away. It’s going to take much more than a few health care ads to get people to stop watching.

The NFL, of course, knows that, but that doesn’t mean the partnership is going to happen. The cost of advertising may be too high for the government to pay on a regular basis, or the two sides may just fail to reach an agreement on other collaborations. If it does happen, though, conservatives might kick and scream and send angry tweets that the Twitchy team aggregates into a post every Sunday afternoon. To suggest that people will stop watching, though, is an exaggeration on the same level as cries of “government takeover of health care” and “death panels.”

http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2013/06/28/2231071/conservatives-obamacare-nfl/

 

[QueEx]

I see it now. "The NBA Cares... not to involve itself at this time"

This is clearly a public service. Pro athletes promoting the ACA-- Obamacare-- is a good way to reach people about the benefits they don't know they are entitled to under settled law and this grudge match is just disgusting. They want to keep people ignorant.

We really should contact the relevant leagues and let them know that public education services are not the same as political advocacy, that no one is going to turn away from their products for doing the health care equivalent of a "Buckle up, it's the law" ad and they need not disassociate themselves with all things Obama out of fear.

What about that lil thing referred to as the Antitrust Exemption that MLB has ???

I'm not certain if the other major sports have it, but between 1919 and 1921 an antitrust case filed by the Federal League against the Major League for conspiring to destroy the Federal League wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld a lower court finding that baseball was not the kind of commerce contemplated by federal antitrust laws. That is, baseball was found to be "Exempt" from federal antitrust laws.

Cardinal's Kurt Flood sued MLB in the early 70's giving rise to "Free Agency". Though Flood won, the Supreme Court still upheld the antitrust exemption but made it clear that it was up to Congress to fix the quirk in the law.

Is Mitch threatening the MLB ???

 

[QueEx]

FOOTNOTE

That leaving it up to Congress to "fix it" is similar in some respects to the recent Voting Rights case where the U.S. Supreme Court stated in denying a 2009 challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act that Congress needed to "fix it." Just last week, however, enough of the conservative wing grew balls and the Court substituted its judgment for that of Congress (because it said Congress hadn't acted) and overturned a major provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Major League baseball owners have never wanted a viable case to reach the Supreme Court on the exemption issue (for fear that the Court might Voting-Rights-Their-Azz) -- and it has pandered to Congress to keep them from "fixing it."

In my lowly-held opinion, Mitch is reminding MLB.