Did Media Matters fund marketing of Obamacare?

An organization that reportedly received a grant from the lobbying arm of the embattled Media Matters for America helped the White House to craft and market Obamacare, according to a recently released book.

Yesterday, as part of an in-depth investigative series on Media Matters, the Daily Caller revealed that the progressive media organization gave away $125,000 of its donors' money to a little-known marketing outfit that calls itself the Herndon Alliance.

Based in Seattle, Herndon is said to advocate for universal healthcare. The grant reportedly came from the Media Matters Action Network, the progressive group's affiliated lobby. The money was earmarked for "rapid response media capability for countering misinformation and obstructive rhetoric."

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The Daily Caller reported that the revelation, together with other questionable financial practices at Media Matters, has prompted interest from congressional Republicans who are now considering examining the group's tax-exempt status.

Read about a new brief in the fight over Obamacare before the U.S. Supreme Court, where the plan is described as "forcible economic rape."

Meanwhile, the relationship between the Herndon Alliance and the Obama White House was revealed in the book "Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America," by reporters Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott.

In "Red Army," Klein and Elliott document the radical origins of Obama's health-care law, revealing the principal author of the foundation for the legislation while tracing the law itself to a group funded by George Soros, a prominent Media Matters donor.

"Red Army" shows how the Herndon Alliance helped to market Obamacare, even providing suggestions on which words supporters should use to promote the bill.

Acceptable phrases included "quality affordable health care"; "American solutions"; "giving security and peace of mind"; "fair rules"; "government as watchdog"; "smart investments, investing in the future"; and "affordable health plans."

Unacceptable words included "universal health care"; "Canadian-style health care"; "Medicare for All"; "regulations"; "free"; "government or public health care"; and "wellness."

Klein and Elliott found the research component of the Herndon Alliance was provided by Celinda Lake, who teamed up with a marketing research firm, American Environics. AE uses social-values surveys to gauge public opinion.

Lake, herself, worked for a number of leftist institutions and unions, including the AFL-CIO and the SEIU. She also serves on the board of directors of the Progressive Congress Action Fund alongside Robert Borosage, whose Healthcare for America Now anticipated spending $42 million in its final push for passage of Obamacare.

AE was founded in 2004 by a team of American strategists and Canadian researchers. In April 2005, current AE managing partners Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger started AE's American branch. One year before, Shellenberger did imaging for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Nordhaus and Shellenberger co-founded the Apollo Alliance sometime around 2002 and were two of its original national board members.

"Red Army" exposes how Apollo helped draft not only the president's green jobs programs, but also the $787 billion economic stimulus bill and other proposed new energy legislation.

Apollo is led by a slew of radicals, including Jeff Jones, who heads Apollo's New York branch and is a former top leader of the Weather Underground terrorist organization. Joel Rogers, a founder of the socialist New Party, is also affiliated with Apollo. Obama's controversial former "green" jobs czar, Van Jones, sits on Apollo's board.

Principal author of Obamacare revealed

In "Red Army," Klein and Elliott reveal that the principal author of the foundation for Obamacare is third generation progressive academic Jacob S. Hacker, a Yale professor who is an expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy.

Hacker is author of Health Care for America, the centerpiece of the Soros-funded Economic Policy Institute's Agenda for Shared Prosperity. "Red Army" finds Hacker's proposal for so-called guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans is the foundation for Obama's healthcare plan.

Hacker's plan had its origins in the professor's other major policy papers on health care, including a 2001 plan for the Covering America project.

In 2003, Hacker first devised a public health insurance program called "Medicare Plus," which would offer coverage to all legal residents not otherwise covered by Medicare or employer-sponsored insurance. Employers would be required to either provide a minimum level of coverage to their workers or pay a payroll tax.

That plan was the basis for the U.S. National Healthcare Insurance Act, which was first introduced Feb. 2, 2005, in the House by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. The act was sponsored by several other congressmen, all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Klein and Elliott document how the Progressive Caucus was founded by the Democrat Socialists of America. The book charges the caucus works as a Marxist-socialist bloc in Congress to introduce progressive legislation with socialist intent.

Radicals lobbying

Meanwhile, several major groups were founded to lobby for the legislation that became Obama's health-care law.

Healthcare-NOW, not to be confused with the organization Health Care for America Now, was established in 2004 for one purpose – to lobby on behalf of single-payer healthcare. Healthcare-NOW's broad base includes socialist, labor, church and community organizations and, most notably, Physicians for a National Health Program.

Healthcare-NOW co-chairmen include Dr. Quentin D. Young, who is considered father of the single-payer movement. Young advised Obama during his days as a senator. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the radical Code Pink anti-war group, is a member of Healthcare-NOW's board of directors.

Another major group leading the charge to transform health care has been Campaign for America's Future. CAF was founded in 1990 by Robert L. Borosage. Roger Hickey, co-founder of the Soros-funded Economic Policy Institute which "Red Army" ties to the health-care bill, is credited as being a CAF co-founder as well.

CAF unveiled the lobby, Health Care for America Now, or HCAN, which "Red Army" documents deceptively maintains that it is a "national grassroots campaign."

HCAN's lead member organizations include ACORN, MoveOrg, AFSCME, Americans United for Change, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, SEIU, United Food and Commercial Workers and the Soros-funded Center for American Progress Action Fund, which is highly influential in advising the White House.