The 60 Plus Association, a conservative-leaning advocacy group focused on issues for seniors, began running new television spots this week targeting five incumbent Democratic senators for their support of the Medicare provisions in the 2010 health law.
60 Plus, which backs the premium support proposal for Medicare authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is spending $3.5 million to run the ads on both cable and broadcast in five states over the next two weeks. Ryan, who heads the House Budget Committee, proposed a plan that kept the same $500 billion level of cuts to Medicare (over 10 years) that the health law contains.
Each version of the ad, which features 77-year-old crooner Pat Boone, asks seniors to call one of five senators — Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Jon Tester, D-Mont. — to express opposition to health law provisions like the Independent Payment Advisory Board. All five senators are up for re-election this fall.