Replaced Paulsen spokester Michael Brodkorb (and still, paid Paulsen staffer) put up a press release from the MNGOP which is basically garbage. In fact, the best use I can think of for it so far, is lining the cage of that bunny to the right. The first just spectacularly worthless quote is this:
Madia Allies Falsely Claim Paulsen Wouldn’t Protect Social Security. “Similarly, Paulsen, who has accepted thousands of dollars from the insurance and banking industries, refused to rule out privatizing Social Security… (DFL Press Release: “DFL Party: ‘Without A Doubt’ – Paulsen Is No Friend To Minnesota’s Seniors,’ www.dfl.org, September 17, 2008)
Paulsen Called For Social Security Preservation In Debate. “Social Security absolutely has to be preserved and protected, without a doubt. That is a contract. That is a bond that has been made with workers through the government. That needs to be carried on. The government should provide any incentives. I support incentives to provide additional savings that can be done on top of regular retirement, whether it’s through additional 401k savings, universal savings accounts, that’s appropriate. We have almost essentially a negative savings rate here in the United States and people need to set aside a little bit more money for their long term retirement.” (Erik Paulsen, AARP debate, September 16, 2008)
If you can show me in that quote where Paulsen rules out privatizing Social Security, I’ll give you a cookie. Pauslen didn’t; he gave some wishy-washy political mumbo jumbo speak about preserving Social Security (what does that even mean?). The Republican Party (not unsually) fails again. But this is just the first example of a press release full of poppycock. Hit the jump for all the rest, including most importantly Republican lies about allowing the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices.
Update: After the jump a press release from the Madia camp.
Yesterday Matt put up a post about Paulsen’s opposition to the Government negotiating the prices of prescription drugs. It’s sweet, so check it out here (and there’s video of Paulsen’s miserable performance at the debate). But here is the claim in the MNGOP press release:
“Now Hold On A Second, The Congressional Budget Office Has Said That You’re Gonna Save $30 Billion A Year…” - Ashwin Madia In Response To Rep. Paulsen Saying The Congressional Budget Office Found Negotiations Would Have A “Negligible Effect” On Medicare Costs. (Ashwin Madia, AARP debate, September 16, 2008)
Congressional Budget Office Letter: “By itself, giving the Secretary broad authority to negotiate drug prices would not provide the leverage necessary to generate lower prices than those obtained by PDPs and thus would have a negligible effect on Medicare drug spending.” (Congressional Budget Office Letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, April 10, 2007, http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/79xx/doc7992/DrugPriceNegotiation.pdf)
So, the first thing is that the letter quoted by the Republican party, is specifically related to a single peice of legislation HR 4. To argue that the ability to negotiate drug prices won’t save money is absurd on it’s face. As Matt pointed out, the VA does it, WalMart does it, the AARP supports it, something like 80% of seniors support the idea that the Government should be able to haggle over the price of the drugs it’s buying. It works in private business, it works for federal agencies and to argue that it wouldn’t work here is just silly. And finally, it shows just one more situation where Erik Paulsen is no Jim Ramstad. Ramstad, a thoughtful and independent public servant supports Medicare negotiating the prices of prescription drugs. Paulsen, a life long politician and party hack doesn’t. Paulsen can use the same typeface and color scheme as Jim Ramstad, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to act like Jim Ramstad.
Erik Paulsen voted against negotiating when he was in Minnesota, and he’ll vote against it in Washington (I’m not saying it has anything to do with the thousands he’s received from Big Pharma).
And finally, Mike has mentioned a few times that a bunch of folks in the blogosphere are fundraising for Madia, I’d like to take a second to personally address that. It is just as absurd as all the claims in this boob-tastic press release to compare what we do, to what Michael Brodkorb does. MNPublius, MNCampaignReport and so many others have worked hard to raise money for Ash Madia because we believe in him. Only in Michael’s craven and cynical worldview can volunteers be compared to him, a paid political operative. We do what we do because Madia inspires and excites us. Michael supports Paulsen because he’s paid by him. I’m proud of any dollar that I might have helped bring to Madia’s campaign — he deserves it; and Paulsen (and by extension, his paid lackey Brodkorb) deserves to lose in November.
Statement from Stuart Rosenberg on Negotiating
Lower Prescription Drug Prices in Medicare
MAPLE GROVE, MN — Stuart Rosenberg, campaign manager of Ashwin Madia for Congress, issued the following statement in response the Minnesota Republican Party’s recent denials regarding pharmaceutical price negotiations in Medicare.
“It is stunning and surprising that Erik Paulsen and the Minnesota Republican Party believe that having our government negotiate for lower prescription drug prices on behalf of Medicare recipients would produce no savings to taxpayers.
As a Marine Corps Captain and Iraq War Veteran, Ashwin Madia respects and supports the Veterans Administration’s work to obtain affordable drug prices for veterans. On average, negotiating drug prices saves the Veterans Administration approximately 58% on its prescription drug costs. [Families USA, 4/07] Ashwin Madia is proud to stand with AARP and the nearly 90% of Americans who support letting the government negotiate lower prescription drug prices on behalf of seniors enrolled in Medicare. [AARP 1/07; AARP 2/07]
Erik Paulsen, yet again, shows he is a far-right politician indebted to the pharmaceutical industry and that he is no Jim Ramstad. In 2007, Congressman Jim Ramstad voted for the bipartisan bill that allowed the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices in Medicare. [HR 4, Roll Call Vote 23, Jan. 12, 2007] Ashwin Madia, unlike Erik Paulsen, would vote just like Jim Ramstad on this issue.
Independent studies estimate such a policy in the Medicare program would save as much as $30 billion and the CBO has clarified its previous cost estimates, saying that “pressure on drug manufacturers…could give the Secretary the ability to obtain significant discounts in negotiations with drug manufacturers.” [CEPR, 3/07; CBO, 4/17/07
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The CBO has never said $30 billion dollar saving.
In the CBO letter that Madia’s campaign references they say
“”Although cost savings might be possible in selective instances, the impact in Medicare’s overall drug spending would likely be limited”“
Rosenberg lies in his quote of the CBO letter
“pressure on drug manufacturers…could give the Secretary the ability to obtain significant discounts in negotiations with drug manufacturers.””
This quote is in reference to giving Secretary the power to SET prices rather than negotiate prices. Rosenberg is a liar.
I just read most of the sources referenced by Rosenberg, and it sure appears to say “the potential savings from an efficient drug benefit are more than $30 billion a year”. Try not lifting one or two sentences from an entire artical and maybe you and Eric Paulsen would see the error of his ways. Paulsen is either uninformed or in the back pocket of Big Pharma (I wonder what his contributor list says?). By the way, he did in fact vote against a state bill that would have allowed for government negotiating for seniors drugs and the bill was defeated by ONE stinking vote….I bet he’s very proud of that vote.
“Try not lifting one or two sentences ”
You mean like Rosenberg lifted a sentence out of a paragraph describe the potential savings of Medicare SETTING prices and using it to justify MEDICARE negotiating prices?
Show me where the CBO says $30 billion.
There’s a lot of wasted energy here sending nasting gram news releases back and worth.
If you want a clear, concise, business-based solution to the social security mess — a mess democrats and republicans put us in — take note of David Dillon’s postion. Put your tongue on it!
Paulsen is such an idiot… does he have any experience in negotiation or business at all. I mean sheesh what an ugly fool to even suggest you can’t ask for a discount or start the discussion about pricing. Just goes to show you how far down in the barrel the GOP has to go to get a candidate.
MNPublius, Madia, the DCCC and the DFL will do anything to smear Paulsen in this election to distract attention from their 30 year-old, ex-Republican, non-property owning candidate. You are running a candidate who lied about who he voted for in 2000 to help win the nomination, let his law license lapse, and who has almost zero connections to the community he wishes to serve. If Ramstad hadn’t retired, Madia would be living in an apartment in Blaine and running against Michele Bachmann.
mnpolwatcher, I agree 100%,
There is no reason anyone should pay attention to the things a candidate “says” during a debate anyway.
As you have shown, we Republicans are allowed to smear Madia, because he disagrees with us Minnesota Republican bloggers.
People who disagree with us Republicans, however, are not allowed to smear our fine candidates, because they are 100% correct on every issue.
We Republicans are the good guys….you LIBERALS, on the other hand, are the bad guys, because you disagree with us on issues.
Everyone knows these facts are pretty easy to understand.
Great Job Minnesota Republican blogger mnpolwatcher!
Guess what? mnpolwatcher got the talking points. BUT forgot to mention Madia’s not WHITE. Though I guess I’m supposed to think that without you having to say it, right, by the sly use of “almost zero connections to the community”. Awesome use of coded language there, buddy…I give you a B+.
TFRWG,
You should pay attention to what candidates say in debates. If Paulsen really left the door open on whether he totally opposed privatizing social security, his words shouldn’t need to be spliced, no? From watching the debate, I didn’t get any sense that Paulsen was inclined to privatize social security.
Polwatcher, thats says a ton about Madia. His ads are kinda slick though.
I often wonder why we run such people?
How about the slick way Paulsen refused to answer when Ashwin asked him, “didn’t you vote against giving the state of Minnesota the right to negotiate drug prices for seniors?”…he tried to change the subject and said something about Pawlenty championing something or other…why can’t he answer the question. You Paulsen puppets always want to harp on his “record” and a lack of one for Madia, but ask a simple question about why he would vote a certain way, and his answer is…..???? We’re still waiting. The fact of the matter is that when he had a chance to do something for our seniors, he didn’t. Madia understands what it’s all about to help out those less fortunate as he has represented numerous people in tough situations both professionally and as a volunteer. He gets it. Paulson doesn’t.
Fortunately the voters in Anoka MN understood the importance of running credible candidates when they defeated Don Huizenga and his divisive statements in a recent primary.
Hockey mom, I wasn’t being racist. I was pointing out that he has lived a limited portion of his life in the district, hasn’t worked in it, hasn’t represented any portion of it and doesn’t own a home in it.
In the “Republican Party of Minnesota 2008 Standing Platform” Section 1, subsection P, it states: “[… we support:] Allowing all Americans to invest some or all of their Social Security payments, continuing to fulfill our obligations to older Americans, and prohibiting Congress from using Social Security funds for any other purpose.”
http://www.mngop.com/Roots/8a6031ab-af02-4ff7-b437-5db06581aaea/Documents/2008%20RPM%20Platform.pdf
Is Erik Paulsen for “Allowing all Americans to invest some or all of their Social Security payments”? Does he disagree with the republican party on this issue?
“If Ramstad hadn’t retired, Madia would be living in an apartment in Blaine and running against Michele Bachmann.”
I have to agree with MnPolWatcher on that point.
I was gone all weekend, and am still waiting for one of Paulsen’s supporter’s to comment on Paulsen not answering a simple question from Ashwin Madia, “didn’t you vote against giving the State of Minnesota the right to negotiate drug prices for seniors?”. I wasn’t able to attend the debate tonight, so I’ll look forward to seeing what other simple questions Paulsen attempts to dodge. I want someone who gives me straight answers to legitimate questions, and Madia does that….Paulsen does not!
At the time, Erik cast the tiebreaking vote to defeat the bill that would allow negotiations on the price of prescription drugs with the drug companies. That is a fact that Ashwin stated, but Erik was not willing to admit.
Oh and by the way, check out the list of Erik’s PAC contributions:
http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/can_give/H8MN03077
Looks like some of the major drug companies have Erik’s back.