Democrats on Thursday will launch a new 60-second ad on national cable television accusing repeal-happy Republicans of wanting to get rid of health care reform and all its benefits. The ad, obtained by TPMDC, is timed to coincide with the government mailing to seniors the first $250 Medicare rebate checks fixing the so-called prescription drug “donut hole.”
The ad is titled “We Can’t Afford To Go Back.” It outlines the positive parts of the health care law signed by President Obama this spring and charges, “Republicans want to take it all away.”
I’ve learned that DNC Chairman Tim Kaine on Thursday will dare Republicans to make repeal the focus of their fall campaign to try and win back control of Congress, challenging the GOP to tell senior citizens and others benefiting from health care exactly which parts of the reform law they’d scrap.
We’ve been writing quite a bit about the GOP’s repeal pledge over the last few months as they settled on a game plan. Minority Leader John Boehner said in a radio interview on on WFLA’s “Bud Hedinger Show” last week repealing health care is his party’s “No. 1 priority.”
“They got everything else in the entire bureaucracy that they need to control our healthcare system … with the signing of this bill. … That’s why repealing this bill has to be our No. 1 priority,” said Boehner (R-OH).
The DNC’s Organizing for America is holding events around the country to highlight new health care benefits kicking in — which Obama spoke about this week during a town hall with seniors. As part of the new health care push, Democrats will zero in on 52 House Republicans in competitive districts to get their local press to ask them about how they’d go about repealing the law.
The DNC’s Brad Woodhouse said the Republicans thought health care “was their silver bullet, and that we were going to pass it and run from it.” Democrats say it’s actually the opposite. “We are going to make sure on this and every milestone of the [law] that the constituents of vulnerable Republicans know what they would lose if their members’ effort to repeal reform is successful,” he said.
Watch the DNC’s ad:
