Krugman Scoop: They Use ACTORS in Campaign Ads!

Paul Krugman, as usual, is leading the left media through the looking-glass–and this time the distortions are not only bizarre but deeply disturbing. Krugman argued several days ago that many of the Obamacare “horror stories” are, in fact, “hooey.” That seems to be the basis for Majority Leader Harry Reid’s claim that they are “all” untrue, and for Greg Sargent’s attempt to turn questions about one story into a problem with “stories.” 

The left does this every time. (Remember how they hit Joe the Plumber because his middle name is Joe?) But it won’t work this time, not only because most of the “horror stories” out there are real, but also because there are millions of Americans who are being hurt by Obamacare, even if their stories are not quite so dramatic. They are getting dropped from their insurance, losing access to their doctors, and/or paying higher premiums.

The latest ad from Americans for Prosperity (funded by the evil Koch Brothers, who despite Democrats’ quaint obsession are only the 59th-biggest political donors in America) dramatizes that general reality. It shows one person after another going to their mailbox to receive notices that their policies have changed or have been canceled. It is a devastating ad, one with the same arresting force as 2012’s “dinner table” spot, also from AFP.

But wait! Those people are ACTORS! says Krugman: “But the people in the ads are, in fact, paid actors, and the scenes they play aren’t re-enactments of real events–they’re ’emblematic,’ says a spokesman for the group.” I suppose it would be better if AFP had, like the Obama campaign in 2012, used a real person like Joe Soptic to tell a blatant lie about Mitt Romney–namely, that he was to blame for the death of Soptic’s wife from cancer.

Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in 2014, is trying to raise money off the ad. A recent campaign email reads: 

It’s no secret that the billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch, have already spent millions of dollars in Louisiana alone to distort Senator Landrieu’s proven and effective leadership for Louisiana in order to elect a senator who will answer to them. 

But this new attack ad is a new low, even for them.

The ad from one of their front groups pretends to show everyday Louisianians opening their mailboxes to find bad news — but the people in the ad are not actually Louisianians; they’re paid out-of-state pretenders.

Yet thousands of people in Louisiana are going through exactly what the actors are portraying. That’s the real “new low,” and the real lies are the ones Landrieu told Americans about Obamacare.