“Senate Democrats Go For The Jugular on Medicare”

DSCC Launched New Ads Highlighting Senate Republicans’ Attacks on Medicare

A wave of new reporting highlights the DSCC’s new advertising campaign “go[ing] for the jugular on Medicare [and] Social Security” and “going on offense… against Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas and  Rick Scott in Florida.” 

Here’s what they’re saying:

Axios: Scoop: Democrats target Ted Cruz and Rick Scott with Medicare ads
By Andrew Solender
July 28, 2023

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is running a five-figure digital ad campaign aimed at seniors, accusing Cruz and Scott of being “a threat to your Medicare.”

• The campaign also includes spots targeting Senate Republicans more generally that will run in seven Democratic-held states. 

• DSCC spokesperson Tommy Garcia said these are their first ads of the cycle targeting the two GOP senators, telling Axios they will “look for every opportunity to put Cruz and Scott on defense.”

• In addition to representing the only GOP-held Senate seats in states that were decided by single digits in the 2020 presidential election, the two conservative senators have distinct vulnerabilities.

• Cruz has long had mediocre favorability ratings, and the animus he inspires among liberals allows any Democrat running against him to smash fundraising records. He narrowly won reelection in 2018.
  
  
• Scott, in two gubernatorial elections and a Senate race, also won narrow races despite his ability to self-fund as a multi-millionaire. The Florida senator also left himself open to attacks on Medicare and Social Security with a policy agenda he put out last cycle proposing to sunset all federal legislation after five years.

Washington Examiner: Senate Democrats celebrate Medicare anniversary with attacks on Republicans 
By Cami Mondeaux
July 28, 2023

• As the country approaches its 58th anniversary of Medicare being signed into law, Senate Democrats are celebrating the occasion by airing a new set of campaign ads targeting vulnerable Republicans over their stances on the entitlement spending program.

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is launching a new five-figure ad campaign called “Memories,” which highlights comments and proposed policies from Senate Republicans to rein in some of Medicare’s provisions or implement new eligibility requirements. The ads will be posted on social media platforms owned by Meta in a similar format as the “memories” feature users see on Facebook.

• “In 2024, voters will hold Ted Cruz, Rick Scott and every GOP Senate candidate accountable for their party’s agenda that would gut Medicare and spike the cost of their health care and prescription drugs,” DSCC spokesman Tommy Garcia said in a statement.

• The campaign will specifically target voters in Texas and Florida as well as key swing states such as Ohio, Montana, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona. The ad videos target lawmakers by featuring the senators with captions such as: “Ted Cruz is a threat to your Medicare.”

• The videos also hit Scott for his 11-point agenda last year that proposed sunsetting all federal laws after five years unless Congress votes to extend them.
  
  
• The ad campaign comes as Medicare and Social Security are sure to once again take center stage during the 2024 cycle. Democrats hammered Republicans on that issue in the final weeks of the midterm elections, which helped the party pull out a better-than-expected performance and expand its majority in the Senate.

Daily Kos: Senate Democrats go for the jugular on Medicare, Social Security
By Joan McCarter
July 30, 2023

• McConnell and two of the most unlikeable members of his caucus feature prominently as the villains in a new five-figure digital ad campaign from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that’s aimed at seniors. “You can’t trust Senate Republicans,” the ad says. “They’re a threat to your Medicare.”
  
  
• The ad shows headlines about the “11-point plan that would potentially sunset programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security” proposed last year by Florida Sen. Rick Scott for the Republican midterm platform.
  
  
• McConnell’s face is in every frame of this ad running in the Senate battleground states of Ohio, Montana, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona, where Democratic-held seats are on the 2024 ballot.
  
  
• The DSCC has tailored ads with the same message in states where they’re going on offense next year, against Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas and Scott in Florida. “In 2024, voters will hold Ted Cruz, Rick Scott and every GOP Senate candidate accountable for their party’s agenda that would gut Medicare and spike the cost of their health care and prescription drugs,” DSCC spokesperson Tommy Garcia said.
  
  
• This is always a winning message from Democrats. It also has the distinct advantage of being true. Scott did put out a plan to sunset Social Security and Medicare. Cruz has advocated for privatizing Medicare and raising the Social Security retirement age, just as the ad says.
  
  
• The critical social insurance programs have remained at the forefront of President Joe Biden’s and the Democrats’ talking points since Scott unveiled his disastrous plan; it’s the gift that keeps on giving. …Republicans haven’t given up on their long-standing goal to meddle with Social Security and Medicare until they erode the programs into extinction. McConnell, Cruz, and Scott make the perfect villains.

Florida Politics: Senate Democrats poke at Rick Scott’s record on Medicare, Social Security
By Jacob Ogles
July 31, 2023

• As Sunshine State seniors plod through Facebook posts, national Democrats plan to reach them with a simple message: Don’t trust U.S. Sen. Rick Scott with your future benefits.

• Democrats in the Midterms painted Scott’s “Rescue America” policy blueprint as an attack on Medicare and Social Security. A new digital ad against the incumbent Republican strikes the same tone, while retreading a well-worn critique of Scott’s private sector background.

• “First, Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in America’s history,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) spokesperson Maeve Coyle. “Then he spent months crafting and bragging about his signature plan to gut Medicare and Social Security, policies that would spike the cost of health care and prescription drugs for Florida seniors. He was already unlikeable and unpopular — and his attacks on Medicare will give Floridians even more reason to vote him out of office in 2024.”

• You’ve got memories with Rick Scott,” the narrator states. “Remember his radical plan to take away your Medicare? It would devastate millions of Florida seniors and drive costs sky high.”

• That’s a reference to “Rescue America,” a Midterm agenda Scott rolled out as he chaired the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2022 election cycle. Released in February 2022, the plan initially called for sunsetting all federal programs after five years and subjecting them to congressional review. 

• Democrats used the plan against Republicans nationwide and the GOP ultimately netted a one-seat loss in the Senate, leaving Democrats in the majority. The ad grabs a video clip of a recalcitrant Scott saying he “would like to apologize to absolutely nobody.”

• The narrator in the ad leaves voters with a simple takeaway. “You can’t trust Rick Scott. He’s a threat to your Medicare.”

• Coyle’s statement, meanwhile, suggests Democrats also plan to raise another Medicare-related attack on Rick Scott. Before his political career, Scott founded Columbia Hospital Corporation and later led a post-merger Columbia/HCA, but was forced out after the federal government alleged illegal and fraudulent billing practices. The company reached a settlement and admitted to 14 felonies while agreeing to pay $1.7 billion in fines.

San Antonio Current: Democratic group already targeting Ted Cruz with ads ahead of 2024 election 
By Sanford Nowlin 
July 31, 2023

• Senate Democrats have already launched personalized attack ads targeting U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whom the party considers one of the only two vulnerable Republican senators in 2024, Axios reports.

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s five-figure digital ad buy is aimed at seniors, and bashes Cruz and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida — considered the Senate’s other GOP weak link — for posing a “threat to your Medicare.” The buy also includes ads in seven Democrat-held states that will target Senate Republicans more generally.

• The spots are the first of the 2024 campaign cycle targeting Cruz and Scott, DSCC spokesperson Tommy Garcia told Axios. He added that his party will “look for every opportunity to put Cruz and Scott on defense.”

• Many political observers consider Cruz one of the Republicans’ weakest Senate reelection prospects because of baggage including his highly publicized trip to Cancun as Winter Storm Uri left millions of Texans without power and killed hundreds more. His approval ratings in traditionally red Texas also remain flaccid. 

See also: DSCC Statement on Medicare Anniversary; Ahead of Medicare Anniversary DSCC Launches New Ads Highlighting Senate Republicans’ Attacks on Medicare & Social Security; Ahead of Medicare Anniversary DSCC Launches New Ads Highlighting Sen. Scott’s Attacks on Medicare & Social Security; Ahead of Medicare Anniversary DSCC Launches New Ads Highlighting Sen. Cruz’s Attacks on Medicare & Social Security.

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