LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes of Kentucky has released her first attack ad, mischaracterizing Sen. Mitch McConnell’s voting record on overhauling Medicare.
In the ad, a retired coal miner asks how he and his wife are supposed to afford the extra $6,000 in Medicare costs that McConnell voted for.
But the plan McConnell supported in 2011 would not have increased that family’s Medicare costs because it exempted people who are in or near retirement from any changes to the program.
It would have privatized Medicare over time, which some analysts said would have eventually increased costs.
Shaky claims about Medicare privatization were common in the 2012 campaign and now have surfaced in one of the hottest races of this year’s midterm elections.
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Woodward reported from Washington.