After catching multiple so-called ObamaCare “navigators” on camera urging people to lie on federal forms, Project Veritas released another video exposing more fraud and lawlessness surrounding the healthcare takeover aimed at surreptitiously advancing Big Government. This time, among other scandals, a senior operative with “Enroll America,” an outfit linked to the Obama administration and funded by insurance firms bullied by the White House, was exposed admitting what sounded to analysts like a potential conspiracy — unlawfully using the private data collected under the new healthcare scheme for pro-Democrat political purposes. Complaints have already been filed with the IRS and the Attorney General of Texas.
Of course, as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is supposed to “help” Americans sign up for ObamaCare and promote the deeply controversial boondoggle, Enroll America is obligated by law to remain strictly non-partisan and non-political. However, the outfit has already come under fire for its intimate links to the Obama administration — and especially Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who has been pressuring healthcare-related companies to fund the controversial multi-million dollar “Get Covered America” campaign run by Enroll America. Republicans in Congress have even suggested that the White House’s efforts on behalf of the organization may have violated federal law and ethics rules — charges which the administration denies.
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Now, however, critics have even more ammunition to target the Obama-linked outfit, which aims to get people signed up under ObamaCare. In the latest Project Veritas video, Enroll America Texas Communications Director Chris Tarango was caught on camera apparently conspiring to unlawfully use supposedly private data from potential ObamaCare enrollees to help turn the Lone Star State into a Democrat stronghold. “This conversation never happened,” he explains. While the tape is rolling, Tarango also boasts that he will do “whatever it f****** takes.” The goal, of course, is to support the administration and its disastrous ObamaCare campaign while getting “progressives” into positions of power.
“We’re all Obama people,” the Enroll America communications chief for Texas admits on video, referring to his outfit, the Obama front group “Organizing for Action” that emerged from the president’s political campaign, and another Obama-linked organization known as Battleground Texas dedicated to turning the state blue. “So then, after the campaign ended, we all went in three different directions,” he said. “These three organizations, they’re all grassroots oriented, they all operate the exact same way, but they’re all Obama 2012 people.” All of them are working on the same model, too, Tarango added.
“I’m doing Enroll America right now,” noted the communications boss for the Texas chapter of the ObamaCare-promoting machine. “But I’m also, I shouldn’t be saying this, but I’m also helping out with HD 50, so that’s as partisan as it gets.” The reference to HD 50 is about a political race in Texas for a seat in the state House of Representatives, which the self-styed “Obama people” are apparently so determined to secure for a “progressive” candidate that they are willing to break the law and violate the privacy of unwitting Americans.
Tarango goes on to suggest that he knows somebody at Enroll America “well enough that, to feel like if we had a few beers, this would not be the craziest conversation that he’s ever heard.” He also said he knows somebody at the organization who could obtain the data “off-the-record” in the unlawful bid to swing the Texas election. “I will talk to one person that I think might be open to having this conversation behind closed doors,” Tarango said, discussing how safeguards might be avoided to break the law. “If we can do it, we’re going to get the list.”
The taped conversation with Tarango was conducted by a Project Veritas operative posing as a leader with a “progressive” political action committee hoping to advance Big Government in any way possible — including through unlawful schemes. At first, Tarango, despite boasting of his “team” and “secret weapon,” sounds hesitant about knowingly violating the law to advance the mission — especially with somebody he does not know. However, shortly after that, he re-emphasizes that he has his “hands in different pies,” and explains that the scheming would have to be off-the-record, and that he will do everything he can to make it happen.
Tarango agrees to unlawfully allow the fake “progressive” organizer from Project Veritas to test out using Enroll America’s list to see if it helps in the race. “If you could show me that it works, then I’d be open to it, but again, I still have my doubts,” he says. “I like where your head is at,” Tarago continues, touting the idea of doing “whatever it takes” — in other words, the ends justifies the means, apparently regardless of legal or moral concerns. “But I just want to be smart about it.”
In the wake of the video’s public release, a non-partisan government watchdog group known as Cause of Action decided to take measures in an effort to advance accountability. According to a report by Fox News, the organization sent a letter last week asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Enroll America and Battleground Texas to determine whether laws were being broken. It also asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to investigate the two Obama-linked outfits as well.
“Despite its claims of serving the public good, it appears that Enroll America has abused its tax-exempt status by using donor contributions for political and other impermissible purposes,” Cause of Action said. The group also argued that Tarango’s video-taped comments exposed by Project Veritas show Enroll America is “engaging in political activity by coordinating with the pro-President Obama group Organizing for Action, a 501(c)(4) organization.” OFA, as Obama’s front group is known, has played a key role in supporting what critics say is the administration’s radical agenda on everything from ObamaCare to “climate change.”
Project Veritas, led by “guerilla journalist” and activist truth seeker James O’Keefe, has uncovered several massive scandals in recent years. Among the most outrageous schemes: the lawless activities of the taxpayer-funded political machine known as “ACORN,” which Project Veritas exposed on tape offering advice on everything from defrauding U.S. taxpayers to concealing a child-prostitution ring from authorities. The hard-hitting videos eventually led to the radical pro-Obama outfit being defunded. However, according to multiple investigations, the forces and players behind the outfit simply created new front groups with new names to keep the taxpayer funds flowing. Project Veritas also exposed leadership at the taxpayer-funded PBS.
More recently, with a focus on ObamaCare, Project Veritas exposed taxpayer-funded ObamaCare “navigators” advising an undercover investigator to defraud the IRS and more. The so-called “navigators,” none of whom will reportedly be held accountable, urge the investigator posing as a client seeking help to break the law and lie in order to qualify for larger subsidies and avoid IRS scrutiny.
“You lie because [if you don’t] your premiums will be higher,” one of the characters said on tape, advising the investigator to conceal his smoking to avoid higher premiums. In another scene, the “navigator” urges the undercover investigator to conceal part of his earnings by not reporting them to the IRS: “Don’t get yourself in trouble by declaring it now!”
Of course, none of the fraud and unlawful plotting exposed by Project Veritas compares with the deliberate lies used by Obama and his allies to sell ObamaCare to a hostile public in the first place. As The New American and numerous other media outlets reported this month, the administration and congressional Democrats repeatedly claimed, falsely, that if people were happy with their health insurance plans, they would be allowed to keep them.
It was later revealed that the administration has known for more than three years that the claims were bogus. Millions have already lost their plans because of ObamaCare, and analysts say millions more are set to lose them in the near future. And this is just the beginning.
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected].
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