When All Else Fails, Lie to Seniors

This ad (or an alternate version targeting Rep. Eric Paulsen instead of Tom Emmer) has run at least four times in the past few days in our two local papers:


It warns seniors that letting Medicare negotiate drug prices may mean they'll end up with less access to "medicines they need." Because negotiating prices raises prices, as we all know.

The ad dares to claim that Part D premiums "remain affordable" currently. It repeats in the text that the bill under consideration "will limit access to the medicines you need."

Finally, it ends with this deceitful web address: www.DontCutOurMedicare.com.

All brought to you by the generically named American Action Network. I wondered who that is, and quickly found out it's a "think tank," chaired by my former senator Norm Coleman and employing lots of other out-of-office Republican politicians. They're spending an awful lot of ad money. I wonder who's paying for that.

Hmmm. Maybe pharmaceutical companies?

There are more than a couple on this partial list of AAN's funders. They don't disclose their funders, of course. Researchers at the Center for Responsive Politics and opensecrets.org have identified these names.

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Fun fact about Norm Coleman: Daughter Number Three-Point-One was born less than 24 hours before election day in 1993. At that time, Coleman was making his first run for mayor of St. Paul. On the way home from the hospital, day-old baby in tow, I stopped to vote against him.