Democrats champion change, Republicans charge confusion in message talking points

Democrats and Republicans are both honing their recess reform messages, hoping to win support for their respective positions and potentially, making opponents look bad, The Hill reports.

"Senate Democratic leaders are driving home a handful of key points during this month's town hall forums on healthcare (distributed through a talking points memo distributed to Democrats): Reform will be fully funded, will not jeopardize current doctor-patient relationships, and is the only alternative to the current, broken system. … To address the (citizen) criticism, the document lays out 12 common 'attacks' of the Democratic health reform effort — that the new system would be too complicated, too expensive or too unaffordable for small businesses, or that it would raise taxes, lead to a government takeover or 'come between me and my doctor.'" The document also offers key Medicare themes to use to defend the program (Rushing, 8/11).

Roll Call: "House Republicans are accusing the Democratic National Committee of attempting to mislead voters into believing they have a formal meeting in Members' offices during the recess as part of the two parties' escalating war over health care reform. Republicans argue that the DNC, through its Organizing for America grass-roots arm, was 'scheduling' meetings for constituents that did not exist in an effort to ramp up anger against the GOP. OFA launched a program earlier this month that encouraged supporters to 'stop by' their Congressman's district office to express their support for the Democratic health care reform plan. The site offered the ability to schedule the visit; the problem is that Republicans say the group forgot to inform the offices about the appointment" (Kucinich, 8/11).