Fear-mongering won't scuttle Obamacare

Opponents hope to kill health care reform by scaring people, but time is running out

By Wendell Potter, 6:00 am, August 26, 2013 Updated: 9:06 am, August 26, 2013

Opponents of Obamacare know that time is not on their side. If they can’t kill the health care law by threatening to shut down the government, as some Republicans are suggesting, the game will be over, and they know it. That’s because there is an expiration date on their long-running campaign to scare the bejesus out of Americans about the awful things that will happen if health care reform is not mortally wounded by year’s end.

Fear mongering has a shelf life. The strategy the president’s opponents have been using to influence public opinion is based on the premise that people fear the unknown. Most of us just don’t like uncertainty.