AFL-CIO gets $1 million to build ObamaCare ‘awareness’ in California

To be honest, this is just a drop in the bucket. The California ObamaCare exchange gets a whopping $90 million just for administrative costs - executive salaries, things of that nature. And $37 million is going to 48 different groups for the purpose of "building awareness."

Nice work if you can get it. Betsy McCaughey reports for IBD:

Of the 48 organizations that got grants, only a handful are health-care related. The California NAACP received $600,000 to do door-to-door canvassing and presentations at community organizations. Service Employees International Union, which says its mission is "economic justice," received two grants totaling $2 million to make phone calls, robo-calls and go door to door.

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The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO got $1 million for door-to-door, one-on-one education and social networking. It describes its role as "engaging in both organizing and political campaigns, electing pro-union and pro-worker candidates." Community Health Councils, a California organization with a long history of political activism against fracking, for-profit hospitals, state budget cuts and oil exploration, got $1 million to conduct presentations at community and neighborhood meetings and one-to-one sessions.

These organizations, closely allied with the Democratic Party, are being funded by your tax dollars to conduct "outreach," meaning the kind of phone banking and door-to-door canvassing that activists do to turn out the vote. They will turn out the uninsured to enroll on the exchanges and in the Democratic Party. This was all so predictable. Of course the implementation gets mixed up with politics, because that's what always happens when government intervenes in markets. That's why government intervenes in markets - because political constituencies are always looking for new ways to benefit from public policy. And the more government controls, the more opportunities there are. If there was really a demand for what ObamaCare offers, the government wouldn't have to spend $37 million hiring left-wing activist groups to go out and "sell" it. People would be beating down the doors to get it. But the public never wanted this, and doesn't want it now. Why see that as a problem, though, when you can turn it into an opportunity to funnel money to people who support your re-election efforts? Welcome to the age of government health care. Expect lots more of this nonsense.