By: David Dayen
In a new television ad out this week, the group “60 Plus” asserts that seniors would lose access to doctors, treatments, and life-saving drugs if the Democratic health care plan is adopted. The group, with ties to the national GOP and almost fully funded by the pharmaceutical industry, is pumping $2 million dollars into airing the ad in eight states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The ad includes the standard scare tactics about proposed cuts to Medicare “to pay for a plan that could lead to a government takeover of health care.” An older man pleads at the end of the ad, “Don’t make us pay for health care reform by cutting Medicare. We’ve sacrificed enough.” The ad targets individual Senators in those eight states, Democrats and Republicans who are potential swing votes on health care. This is an extension of ads from 60 Plus that started back in August. They’ve also sent out mailers to seniors featuring similar dire warnings.
Not mentioned in the ad is the makeup of the organization 60 Plus, a kind of conservative counter to the AARP. Among their past contributions to the national debate are advocacy against the “death tax” and for “saving Social Security,” which they label as their top priorities. And their website claims that 60 Plus is “a non-partisan seniors advocacy group.” But the ties to national Republicans and industry lobbyists are numerous, as the Center for Media and Democracy’s Sourcewatch has detailed.
According to Sourcewatch, Jim Martin, the President of 60 Plus, has a long affiliation with the Republican Party and “claims to have given then-’Texas Gov. George W. Bush his first political job … way back in 1967.’ ” The PR contact on the press release touting their latest ad is Carl Forti, the former communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, national political director for Mitt Romney’s 2008 Presidential campaign, and the executive VP at FreedomWatch, which has been active in the tea party movement and the anti-health care town hall meetings back in August. Forti now runs the Black Rock Group, which he founded. This Politico article details Forti and Black Rock’s key involvement in trying to exploit a loophole in FEC rules to basically gut campaign finance law and allow “individual corporations to coordinate with no restrictions their own advertising and direct mail attacks on candidates.”
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