Conservatives Target Obamacare With Cyber Monday Ads

Despite the Obama administration announcing it has met its goal of improving HealthCare.gov, the health care enrollment website, a conservative advocacy group is running several Cyber Monday ads on various retail websites, warning shoppers against Obamacare.

The online political ad campaign comes from American Action Network and will run only Monday in specific districts. Those districts belong to some of the most vulnerable Democrats up for re-election. Those in the group’s crosshairs are Reps. Scott Peters of California; Brad Schneider of Illinois; Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire; Patrick Murphy of Florida; John Barrow of Georgia; and Democratic candidate Erin Bilbray of Nevada. [Here's what the ads look like.]

The ads, according to the group, will feature links to statements from each individual and/or their voting record on the issue.

Dan Conston, a spokesman for the group, said the targeted officials were fully in support of the law, but changed their minds once the political winds shifted. “They are Obamacare champions who are now running for cover after selling Americans a bad deal,” Conston said. “Their constituents are not foolish enough to by this."

The Obamacare enrollment website launched Oct. 1 but was riddled with technical problems that prevented millions from signing up and acquiring coverage. The administration made a promise to have the website working for a majority of users by Nov. 30. After meeting its self-assigned deadline, the administration announced that HealthCare.gov now has the capacity to handle 50,000 users at one time and can support more than 800,000 visits daily.

Conston won’t reveal how much was spent on the ad blitz.

“I think Americans are aware that the problem with Obamacare is not a website,” he said. “The website is the symptom of a larger problem. This health-care law is flawed. The website is a component of this disaster. The reality is that this extends far beyond a website.”

Amid public anger at the flawed website and an outcry from people angry that they were about to lose their current coverage plans (after President Barack Obama had promised that wouldn’t happen), House Republicans proposed a bill that would allow individuals to keep their current plans.

Thirty-nine House Democrats defected and supported the Republican-led Keep Your Health Care Plan. Georgia's Barrow was the first Democrat to support the legislation.

“When folks were first introduced to the Affordable Care Act, they were promised that they could keep their current plan if they liked it,” Barrow said in a statement. “As it turns out, that’s not the case today.”

He called the GOP bill a “responsible, bipartisan approach” to mend the broken promise.