Surprise: Soros Pledges Millions to Fund Pro-ObamaCare Efforts

by Stephan Tawney on August 10, 2009

Wow. And it feels like it was just yesterday that the left was decrying activists against ObamaCare being funded by wealthy special interests, even though they weren’t. Suddenly the same lefties are  welcoming George Soros and his millions of dollars to help ignore the will of the people and pass socialized health care.

In another sign of the urgency gripping the pro-health care reform camp, billionaire George Soros has pledged to sink $5 million into the fight, the group getting the money confirmed.

Soros — whose operation carefully guards the privacy of such donations — made the pledge to Health Care For America Now, the leading coalition of pro-reform groups, unions and providers, HCAN chief Richard Kirsch confirmed in an email that was forwarded to me. …

The Soros pledge is noteworthy, because both sides will seize on it. The right will say it shows the real astroturfing is coming from the pro-reform side — billionaire bogeyman Soros is bankrolling this fight!

The left will cite the donation to demand that HCAN show real results. Some on the left, such as blogger Jane Hamsher, have been asking why heavily-bankrolled HCAN hasn’t been able to secure more commitments from Dem members of Congress to stand firm behind a public option.

And Soros isn’t the only source of money helping ObamaCare activists:

The drug industry has authorized its lobbyists to spend as much as $150 million on television commercials supporting President Obama’s health care overhaul, beginning over the August Congressional recess, people briefed on the plans said Saturday.

The unusually large scale of the industry’s commitment to the cause helps explain some of a contentious back-and-forth playing out in recent days between the odd-couple allies over a deal that the White House struck with the industry in June to secure its support. The terms of the deal were not fully disclosed. Both sides had announced that the drug industry would contribute $80 billion over 10 years to the cost of the health care overhaul without spelling out the details.

With House Democrats moving to extract more than that just as the drug makers finalized their advertising plans, the industry lobbyists pressed the Obama administration for public reassurances that it had agreed to cap the industry’s additional costs at $80 billion. The White House, meanwhile, has struggled to mollify its most pivotal health industry ally without alienating Congressional Democrats who want to demand far more of the drug makers. White House officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Huh. Democrats are telling us that the “special interests” are spending millions of dollars to oppose socialized health care. Yet here the drug industry and wealthy liberals are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to support ObamaCare.

So which side is really funded by wealthy special interests intent on overriding the will of the American people? Which side is really astroturfing in the health care debate? You’ll find that it isn’t the right and center. It’s the far left and its special interest groups.



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