Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) is
using Medicare to show Arkansas voters just how extreme his Republican opponent in November, Rep. Tom Cotton, is.
"I wrote the Medicare Protection Act to stop politicians from destroying Medicare," Pryor said in the ad. "My legislation makes it harder to raise the eligibility or to turn Medicare over to the insurance industry. My opponent voted to withhold benefits until age 70, and I'm trying to stop that."
Pryor's attack on Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the likely Republican nominee, is based on Cotton's support for a Republican Study Committee budget proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system and raise the age for access to Medicare to 70.
Pryor is
putting a lot of focus on both Medicare and Social Security this cycle, with a stump speech that includes House Republicans' efforts to "undermine the integrity" of the programs. Cotton has voted for both Paul Ryan's radical budgets, turning Medicare into a voucher program and the even more extreme Republican Study Committee proposal to raise the eligibility age.
Obviously it's smart politics: seniors are the most reliable voters, particularly in midterm elections. Cotton is likely to use the big Medicare lie—Obamacare steals from Medicare—against Pryor, so early inoculation against that makes sense. It also makes sense to expose just how extreme Cotton is early on.