Medicare ad war heats up in House race
U.S. House candidates Kate Marshall and Mark Amodei swap charges on Medicare in new TV commercials as their race for Congress picks up steam ahead of the Sept. 13 special election.
The dueling TV spots make clear that the federal health care program is a major flashpoint in the race to fill the seat left vacant when incumbent Dean Heller resigned to join the U.S. Senate.
And if there was any doubt, the National Republican Congressional Committee also released a commercial today, set to run through Thursday on broadcast TV in Reno and on cable in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, that goes after Marshall on Medicare.
In his ad that began airing today, Amodei, the former chairman of the state Republican Party, moves to tie Democrat Marshall, the state treasurer, to the still controversial health care reform bill passed last year, and specifically to what Republicans characterize as a $500 billion "cut" to Medicare.
Amodei in the ad introduces his elderly mother Joy and promises her "I'll do my best" to protect the program.
"While Kate Marshall and her friends have already supported cuts to Medicare, you should know I will work to support and improve the program," Amodei tells voters.
"You better, Mark. I'm counting on you," his mother says.
The health care law passed by Democrats seeks to expand health care coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, funded in part from savings in Medicare, Medicare tax increases on high income households, new fees on health industries, rollbacks on health-related tax breaks and from penalties against individuals and businesses who do not buy health coverage as required by 2014.
The independent Politifact.com has rated as an exaggeration the GOP charge that the bill "cuts" Medicare by $500 billion. It has noted the reductions are not from current Medicare spending but from slowing the rate of payment hikes to doctors and hospitals over 10 years, and by phasing out extra payments to the private insurance-based Medicare Advantage program to bring costs in line with traditional Medicare.
In any case Amodei's commercial marks the first time he has criticized Marshall by name, following his campaign's initial spots in which he criticized Democrats in Washington and vowed to support for lower taxes and fewer regulations, and to oppose raising the debt limit.
The Amodei ad comes in response to one launched by Marshall over the weekend. It seeks to link him to the Republican budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and passed by the House in April.
The so-called Ryan budget includes a plan to convert Medicare into a voucherlike "premium support" system for people who younger than 55 today and will qualify for benefits in 2022. Beneficiaries would buy coverage from private insurers with financial help from the government.
The Congressional Budget Office has said the Ryan plan would save money for the government but also raise costs for "most elderly people" after it takes effect. Campaigning against the Ryan plan -- calling it the "end of Medicare as we know it" -- has been a key page in the Democratic playbook this year.
The Marshall ad uses a clip of Amodei at a June candidate debate saying "I like a lot of what he (Ryan) has to say in terms of Medicare. I think that is excellent."
But Republicans maintain Amodei has stopped short of saying he would have voted for the Ryan budget, and charge Dems with using a "scare tactic" in the race.
"There is nothing where he has said 'I endorse Paul Ryan's plan,' " said Amodei spokesman Peter DeMarco. "Those words are not out there."
