Koch Group Attacks Landrieu: If Vets Suffer, How Can Obamacare Work?

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The conservative outside group Americans for Prosperity has a new attack ad out hitting Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) that features veterans asking if the federal government can’t efficiently “run healthcare for 8 million veterans” then how can Obamacare work for the whole country?

The ad by the Koch brothers-backed group features a handful of veterans.

“All we asked was to be cared for if we needed it,” Keith B., one of the veterans featured in the video, said.

Another veteran, identified as Air Force Veteran Murphy J., near the end of the ad said “tell Mary Landrieu fix healthcare for veterans before forcing Obamacare on the rest of the country.”

Though the ad doesn’t quite equate the two types of medical care, which are very different approaches to the health care system, it does imply that recent failures at the Department of Veterans Affairs spell trouble for the Affordable Care Act. The VA is a single-payer system run entirely through salaried doctors and Obamacare attempts to make the private insurance market more competitive and affordable through marketplaces and insurance subsidies, as well as expanding Medicaid for poor people.

The new ad is a clear reference to the scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs, in which an audit revealed that wait times were so long at an Arizona facility that 35 veterans died while awaiting appointments to receive care.

The Landrieu campaign, in response, called the ad a “despicable new low” in a statement on Wednesday.

“What we’ve seen today is a despicable new low on behalf of the shady group Americans for Prosperity, but unfortunately these kind of misleading attacks have become par for the course from the Koch brothers,” said Adam Sullivan, the campaign manager for Landrieu’s re-election campaign said. “Senator Landrieu has always been an advocate for the oil and gas industry and has done everything possible to support our veterans and military families. She’s been a leader in opposing the Obama Administration’s new EPA regulations announced last month and was one of the first Democrats in Congress to call for Secretary Shinseki’s resignation after the problems at the VA were brought to light earlier this year.”

According to National Journal, the ad is part of AFP’s $940,000 three-week campaign in Louisiana.

Watch the ad below:

(Photo credit: Youtube)

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: