Issues: Medicare

U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “Heidi Heitkamp – More Government Isn’t The Solution”

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The Chamber of Commerce subtly suggests that former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp is a Washington insider who helped pass health care reform, without mentioning that her opponent has been in Congress for two years. The subtext might not be so interesting if the ad weren’t centered around Medicare spending reductions. Congressman Rick Berg voted for those same measures twice, while Heitkamp’s voted for them zero times. And while the Chamber misrepresents the Medicare and tax impacts of the Affordable Care Act, that’s no surprise; the group spent $100 million lobbying against it earlier in President Obama’s term.

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Americans For Job Security: “Running”

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Americans for Job Security portrays the economy as still mired in recession, using a woman’s voiceover to suggest that President Obama has failed “to turn the economy around.” But while the economy has yet to dig out of the massive, nearly unprecedented hole created by the 2007-08 financial crisis, it has certainly turned around. The economy was hemorrhaging nearly a million jobs each month when President Bush handed over to Obama, and today the economy has been adding jobs for 30 months – two and a half years straight. Just as the ad’s depiction of the recent past is inaccurate, its insinuations about our immediate future are not supported by the evidence.

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Crossroads GPS: “Addicted”

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Accusing Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine (D) of being “addicted” to spending, Crossroads GPS cites a budget Kaine proposed as the outgoing governor of Virginia. The plan, which would have made some tough spending cuts in order to balance Virginia’s recession-ravaged budget, would have raised the maximum state income tax rate by just one percentage point, a trade-off for preventing even deeper cuts to essential services. The ad also refers to the looming defense cuts triggered by the failure of the deficit reduction super committee. Kaine supported the creation of the super committee in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, but has laid out a plan for preventing the upcoming defense cuts.

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American Crossroads: “Where”

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Crossroads GPS relies on old distortions in an attempt to scare Florida seniors about the impact of the Affordable Care Act, including the false premise that Sen. Bill Nelson (D) “cast the deciding vote” on the bill. The ACA does not allow for “rationed” care, and its future Medicare savings do not cut seniors’ current benefits. In fact, Nelson’s opponent, Rep. Connie Mack (R), voted to preserve the health care law’s Medicare savings when he supported Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget plan in 2011. Furthermore, the Affordable Care Act includes important benefits for seniors, such as closing the prescription drug “donut” hole and providing free preventive care.

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Congressional Leadership Fund: “Look”

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The Congressional Leadership Fund goes after Texas congressional candidate Pete Gallego for supporting the “job-killing” health care law “that cuts Medicare $716 billion,” but the claim that the Affordable Care Act will kill jobs has long been debunked, and the law doesn’t cut seniors’ benefits. Instead, it finds savings by reducing future Medicare spending – savings that Gallego’s opponent, Rep. Francisco Canseco (R), also voted for in the Ryan budget. The ad also attacks Gallego for voting to raise taxes as a state legislator, but Gallego voted actually voted against one of the tax bills CLF cites to prove their point.

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Congressional Leadership Fund: “Continued”

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Congressional Leadership Fund seeks to damn Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) by tying her to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Although Sutton has received an unremarkable $25,000 from Pelosi’s leadership PAC since 2006, the rest of the ad’s accusations are misleading. Sutton’s vote for the Affordable Care Act didn’t cut $700 out of current Medicare spending; it found future savings without cutting seniors’ benefits. The “failed” stimulus helped rescue the economy from an even greater recession, and the cap-and-trade bill Sutton supported would have boosted the economy at minimal cost to consumers.

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U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: “Martin Heinrich Has Gone Washington”

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A U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad attacks Senate candidate Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) over his votes against the Regulatory Accountability Act, against the Keystone Pipeline, for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, for Wall Street reform, and for the health care law. The Chamber implies that Heinrich’s votes killed jobs, created red tape, or harmed Medicare, misleading voters about the bills.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: “Voted To Cut Medicare”

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which receives significant funding from health insurers, attacks Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) for voting to “cut” Medicare and for supporting the public insurance option. But the Affordable Care Act reduces future Medicare spending without cutting seniors’ benefits, and Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget actually preserved the law’s savings. Moreover, the Chamber’s description of the public option as “wildly unpopular” is absurd: Although it was dropped from the final legislation, 2009 polls consistently showed that a clear majority of Americans favored having the choice of a public plan.

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Center for Individual Freedom: “Three of Kind”

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The Center for Individual Freedom mischaracterizes the effects of the Affordable Care Act to claim that Rep. Leonard Boswell’s (D-IA) voting record is bad for Iowa’s seniors. For example, the ad implies that savings included in the ACA, indeed over $700 billion, will reduce Medicare benefits. The truth, however, is that the ACA reduces future Medicare spending without cutting benefits and that seniors—in Iowa and across the country—will benefit from expanded care and reduced gaps in coverage, all without the imagined interference from government bureaucrats.

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Center For Individual Freedom: “Shelf Life”

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The Center for Individual Freedom suggests that Rep. Bill Owens (D-NY) broke a campaign promise by supporting the Affordable Care Act, which the group criticizes for “slashing Medicare spending by over $700 billion.” But while the health care law reduces the growth of Medicare spending, it does not cut seniors’ benefits – and it was “benefit cuts,” not overall spending, that Owens pledged to oppose. In addition, same savings were included the Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). The ad also falsely calls the ACA a “government takeover” and misleads about the power of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, whose members must be confirmed by the Senate and are prohibited from cutting benefits or “rationing” care.

Read more after the jump.