The conservative Club for Growth announced a $300,000 ad buy Tuesday that aligns Democratic Senate incumbents with President Obama’s flawed promise that “if you like your plan, you can keep it” under the new health care law.
The statewide TV and digital ads, titled “Parrot,” take aim at Sens. Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska by editing together clips of Mr. Obama making his now-famous vow with the senators each uttering a version of the same promise.
The ads feature a parrot watching the clips on TV and, at the end, defecating on a copy of the New York Times with a front-page story about the Affordable Care Act becoming law in 2010.
Mr. Obama’s pledge earned “lie of the year” honors last year, when a flurry of cancellation notices went out to policy holders with plans that did not meet Obamacare’s coverage requirements. In a political scramble, the White House decided to let people renew their bare-bones plans, so long as insurance commissioners in their respective states allowed it.
The Pryor campaign pointed to news reports about Arkansas’ decision to let people renew these plans, and accused the Club for Growth of using an out-of-context quote in which Pryor was talking about company health plans — not the situation around individual-market plans that got the president in trouble.
Republicans are hoping to parlay Obamacare’s stumbles into victories at the ballot box in November, although recent polls show Democratic incumbents hanging tough so far.
The Club for Growth has endorsed the senators’ Republican opponents — Rep. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan.
“Instead of sending back a reliable vote for President Obama and his failed agenda to the Senate, voters in Arkansas and Alaska have a better choice,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said. “Tom Cotton and Dan Sullivan are pro-taxpayer fighters for economic freedom who will fight Obama and his reckless, job-killing agenda in Congress. Mark Pryor and Mark Begich won’t.”
Republicans are hoping to parlay Obamacare’s stumbles into victories at the ballot box in November, although recent polls show Democratic incumbents hanging tough so far.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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