McCain: "I Don't Agree" That Republicans Are Fear-Mongering About Health Care Reform

In his speech to the AMA yesterday, President Obama called out Republicans for using "scare tactics" and "fear-mongering" to oppose health care reform. "There are those who will try and scuttle this opportunity no matter what -- who will use the same scare tactics and fear-mongering that's worked in the past; who will give warnings about socialized medicine and government takeovers, long lines and rationed care, decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors." he said. "We have heard this all before. And because these fear tactics have worked, things have kept getting worse."

This morning, during a rant on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took issue with Obama's comments. After stressing the need to scrap health care reform and "start over," Obama's former rival denied that Republicans were fear-mongering, saying, "I don't agree with that assessment":

Yesterday, the president of the United States said the opponents of his legislation or his proposals were fear mongering.  I don't agree with that.  I don't agree with that assessment. Nor do I accuse my - the proponents of this bill of that motivation.

However, McCain is wrong. As Media Matters Action Network has pointed out on numerous occasions, Republicans have eagerly adopted anti-reform talking points from Frank Luntz's obstructionist playbook, "The Language of Health Care 2009." For example, House Minority Leader John Boehner once used five Luntz-issued phrases in one sentence. Those talking points were all carefully crafted and poll-tested, many of them with the explicit intention of scaring the public. A few examples:

Luntz, Page 1:

The arguments against the Democrats' healthcare plan must center around "politicians," "bureaucrats," and "Washington" ... not the free market, tax incentives, or competition. Stop talking economic theory and start personalizing the impact of a government takeover of healthcare. They don't want to hear that you're opposed to government healthcare because it's too expensive (any help from the government to lower costs will be embraced) or because it's anti-competitive (they don't know about or care about current limits to competition). But they are deathly afraid that a government takeover will lower their quality of care - so they are extremely receptive to the anti-Washington approach. It's not an economic issue. It's a bureaucratic issue.

Luntz, Page 16:

"Washington Takeover" beats "Washington Control." Takeovers are like coups -- they both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom. What Americans fear most is that Washington politicians will dictate what kind of care they can receive.

Luntz, Page 23:

The word "rationing" does induce the negative response you want, but what you really want audiences to focus on is the "consequences of rationing." As you can see, "rationing" tests very well against the other healthcare buzzwords that frighten Americans.

These terms, which are meant to arouse fear, have been used frequently by the GOP and their allies over the past few months. Moreover, when Republicans continue to distort a study to claim that a public health care option would cause 120 million Americans to lose their insurance -- when the study does not say that at all -- it is fear-mongering, plain and simple.

McCain can protest all he wants, but it won't change the fact that the GOP remains the party of fear.