"There's a sucker born every minute"...but not in Arkansas.

For three years Americans have heard a never-ending stream of well-heeled right-wing-nuts decry the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We've watched them do their damnedest to destroy it legislatively and attempt to swing public opinion against it via a well-funded propaganda campaign.

To Republicans it was never the Affordable Care act; it was Obamacare, a pejorative to be sneered and snarled at every opportunity.

Given the fact that the law was written to help Americans who could not afford healthcare, one might reasonably wonder if the GOP's smear campaign was based on belief in the saying "There's a sucker born every minute."

If so, it is ironic for two reasons.

The first irony is the that the saying, usually attributed to P. T. Barnum, was actually uttered, not by Barnum, but by his competitor, David Hannum in a dispute about what proved to be a fraud.

Both Hannum and Barnum were charging folks money to view the Cardiff Giant. Hannum knew for certain that Barnum's giant was a fake because Barnum had asked to purchase the original from Hannum, and Hannum had turned him down.

Hannum believed his giant was genuine; but, like Barnum's copy, it too was as counterfeit as the GOP's claims that the ACA would destroy America.

The second irony is that Americans are not nearly as naive as the GOP might believe or hope. A sucker may be born every minute, but rural Arkansas is not experiencing such a baby boom.

The article below appeared in the Mena Star, from Polk County, Arkansas, a rural, Republican bastion, where Obamacare enrollment has been quite successful, despite the GOP's efforts to make it fail.

NEWS
9th Street Ministries to conclude Medical Clinic mission It was announced last week that 9th Street Ministries will be concluding their medical clinic mission, which had been ongoing monthly to offer free medical services to those in need since first starting in 1998. The final day for the medical clinic will be Thursday, April 24, and that will conclude the mission that has been in place for almost 16 years.
“Because people are qualifying for insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, our free medical clinic will not be needed anymore,” Stacey Bowser RN, 9th Street Ministries Clinic Director, stated. “We’ve gone from seeing around 300 people a month on a regular basis, but as people were enrolling in Obamacare, the numbers we were seeing have dropped. We were down to 80 people that came through the medical clinic in February, all the way down to three people at the medical clinic in March. Our services won’t be needed anymore, and this will conclude our mission.”
The free medical clinic at 9th Street Ministries was started to reach out to those who could not qualify for Medicaid or Medicade, and did not have any other health insurance policy. If anyone has any form of health insurance, they then become ineligible to received the free medical clinic care through 9th Street Ministries. 

“Once people are enrolled in Obamacare, we can’t see them anymore,” Bowser said. “This complete dropoff of numbers of people coming to the clinic is a result of all those who have successfully enrolled in an insurance policy now.”
The last day will officially be Thursday, April 24, and it will only be open until noon.
“There was such a need for many years that we would have people coming through the medical clinic from the time the doors opened early in the morning all the way until 4:00 in the afternoon.”

9th Street Ministries had always been open on the last Thursday of each month, and was providing services on a first come first serve basis.
The closure of the medical clinic will have no affect on the other services offered by 9th Street Ministries. The services of the Feeding Mission and the Polk County Family Mission will carry on as. The Polk County Family Mission is a program for helping families with bill and utility assistance.
The medical clinic was seeing so many area residents, that there was always a crew of 25 to 30 volunteers that worked to meet all the needs of keeping the medical center operating successfully. After the end of this month, there won’t be the need for that particular group of volunteers anymore.
While 9th Street Ministries has always been sponsored by First Baptist Church in Mena, many other churches and groups were part of its mission. Volunteers have always come from throughout the county to help meet the needs of the people.
“We’ve done our mission, and it’s been great,” Bowser said. “For me, in addition to helping countless people over the years, the biggest honor has been to work with such a devoted group of volunteers that sought out to meet the the needs of Polk County. It’s been an extreme blessing,” Bowser said.

Link to Source

If the link above does not take you to this article, search the archives for "9th street ministries" (without the quotation marks).

In conclusion, I offer this comment from TalkingPointsMemo.com for your enjoyment as it adds a sweetly ironic cherry to the top of today's post.

It's so typical of GOP spin that I half expect to hear it quoted verbatim by the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Ted Cruz, John Boehner, Paul Ryan, et al.

From TPM Reader WB ... 

You are obviously interpreting the 9th Street Ministries Clinic closing all wrong. It is not because of the dwindling number of uninsured. It's because Obamacare has been such an unmitigated disaster that their clients can no longer afford to use a free clinic.
JOSH MARSHALL – APRIL 11, 2014, 11:24 AM EDT
Counterpoint
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