Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) launched a new television ad in the Washington, D.C., media market hitting Republican Senate nominee George Allen’s record on health care.
The spot, part of a $2.25 million ad campaign from the groups that will run through Election Day, highlights Allen’s support for a federal budget that will end guaranteed benefits for seniors, cut billions from Medicare, take away access to mammograms, cancer screening and birth control for women and put insurance companies in charge of health care.
“George Allen’s radical agenda would help insurance companies pad their profits by delaying and denying health care services. His Medicare and women’s health proposals would gut Medicare and eliminate access to vital preventive health care for millions of women. George Allen is simply out-of-touch with Virginia families.” said Seth Johnson, AFSCME Assistant Political Director.
“As a home care provider it is clear that when it comes to healthcare, George Allen and Mitt Romney are two peas in the same extremist Tea Party pod,” said Julia Newton, Executive Vice-President SEIU Virginia 512 and a home care provider from Norfolk. “From gutting the Medicare and Medicaid that so many seniors depend on to putting insurance companies back in charge of deciding who gets what care, the two are making calls from the same bad playbook. Virginia’s middle and working class families need leaders who will invest in vital services like healthcare and Tim Kaine is that leader.”
“The Allen agenda is a giant step backward for Virginia,” said Karen White, NEA National Political Director. “On issues critical to Virginia women, George Allen has questionable priorities and unquestionably bad votes. Virginia families need courage and common sense from their leaders, not ideological devotion to insurance companies.”
The Allen campaign said in a press release that the spots are a continuation of “baseless claims and fake gender wars” that they use to try to distract voters’ attention away from jobs and the economy.
“Tim Kaine’s friends have reached a new level of desperation as they try to throw everything but the kitchen sink at George Allen. Virginians know scare tactics when they see them, and they know George Allen has a record of fighting to strengthen and expand Medicare coverage and women’s access to quality health care,” said Emily Davis, spokeswoman for George Allen for U.S. Senate.
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