DEMS VS. GOP: Both Will Push Hard to Get Credit For Drug Cost Bill
As House Republicans anticipate a vote on their Medicare drug benefit plan as early as Tuesday, Democrats are busy mounting an attack, the Washington Post reports. The Garin-Hart-Yang Group sent a memo to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee declaring that the upcoming vote on the GOP plan "has the potential to be a huge strategic misstep for [Republicans] and a major strategic opportunity for Democrats ... Nearly every Republican in the House is about to go on record in opposition to real Medicare coverage for prescriptions -- a fact that their Democratic opponents can and will use frequently throughout the fall campaigns." Democratic pollsters have already conducted focus groups on ads to attack the GOP plan, and today the DCCC is releasing a packet to all candidates giving them tips on how to discredit the bill. Rep. Deborah Ann Stabenow (D-Mich.) explained that the rising and sometimes prohibitive costs of prescription drugs "is the number one quality-of-life issue for older Americans." The issue promises to be a major sticking point in this year's elections (Vita/Eilperin, 6/26).
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