Surely not!
Propaganda? No… not the Obama administration, surely they wouldn’t use federal resources to engage in political propaganda. I mean that would be an illegal use of government funds, and certainly they wouldn’t do that.
My Senator, Chuck Grassley, is calling them out according to an article in Roll Call last night:
Senate Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is raising concerns that a Department of Health and Human Services Web site that urges visitors to send an e-mail to President Barack Obama praising his health care reform plan may violate rules against government-funded propaganda.
The Web page is accessed through a “state your support” button featured prominently on the HHS Web site and carries a disclaimer that the Web site is maintained by HHS.
In a letter sent to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Tuesday, Grassley warned that “any possible misuse of appropriated funds by the executive branch to engage in publicity or propaganda in support of an Administration priority is a matter that must be investigated and taken seriously,” noting that in 2005 Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) argued that “the use of official funds for similar activities were ‘underhanded tactics’ and that these tactics ‘are not worthy of our great democracy.’”
The form letter on the “state your support” page includes language hailing Obama’s efforts. “We strongly support your commitment to comprehensive health reform. This is not a luxury. The continuing, sharp escalation of health care costs for families, businesses, and government is unsustainable. Reform is imperative. We believe that health reform must be enacted this year,” the letter says.
This wouldn’t fit in at all with their recent track record. Let’s see with the recent National Endowment of the Arts brouhaha, the call to report health care dissenters (that call has now since been retracted by the White House), battling Fox News, and an article out in Politico today about Obama’s enemies list, that Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said is beginning to look downright Nixonian (Senator Alexander was a junior staff in the Nixon White House).
I say, it’s just Chicago politics now at play at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Should we really be surprised?
