The campaign seeks to change a debate Dems have dominated. | Courtesy of American Action Network. Ads to back GOPers on Medicare

The conservative American Action Network is launching a large-scale mail and newspaper ad campaign, targeting a long list of House districts to shore up Republicans on the issue of Medicare.

The campaign, which includes both mail pieces and newspaper ads, charges Democrats with attempting to “balance the budget on the backs of seniors” with a proposal to amend Medicare Part D.


All told, the AAN message offensive will cost about a million dollars, according to officials with the group, and also includes some web advertising. That’s a significant investment in the Medicare debate, which Democrats have dominated so far this year.

Democrats have spent months accusing Republicans of attempting to “end Medicare” in the House GOP budget. The AAN campaign pushes back on that allegation, hitting Democrats for proposing “drastic changes” to prescription drug rebates and arguing that President Barack Obama wants to impose “Medicaid-style price controls” that would be harmful.

“President Obama and liberals in Washington are trying to shift the burden of deficit reduction to seniors through a proposal to introduce radical, Medicaid-style rebates to the Medicare Part D program,” said Brian Walsh, president of the American Action Network. “The American Action Network wants to praise those principled members of Congress who are opposing this radical plan to balance the budget on the backs of America’s seniors.”

The legislation AAN is targeting, the Medicare Drug Savings Act of 2011, was introduced last month. In unveiling the bill, California Rep. Henry Waxman said its goal was to bring down the cost of drugs by making drug manufacturers pay a rebate to the government for Part D recipients who receive both Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

That’s not how the bill is described in the AAN campaign, which contends that new costs to drug companies would end up being passed on to consumers.

In one mail piece, which is being sent to constituents in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, AAN frames the Medicare fight in these terms: “President Obama’s Medicare Plan: Balance the budget on the backs of seniors! Congressman Pat Meehan is fighting to protect Medicare.” (Examples of the mailers are here and here)

The mail campaign will reach 22 congressional districts in 14 states, all of them represented in Congress by Republicans. Besides Meehan, they are Arkansas Rep. Tim Griffin, Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, Florida Reps. Dan Webster, Dennis Ross and Sandy Adams; Iowa Rep. Tom Latham, Indiana Rep. Larry Bucshon, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, New Hampshire Reps. Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass; New Jersey Reps. Jon Runyan and Leonard Lance; Nevada Rep. Joe Heck; Ohio Reps. Pat Tiberi and Steve Stivers; Pennsylvania Reps. Jim Gerlach, Lou Barletta and Charlie Dent; West Virginia Rep. David McKinley, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, and Virginia Rep. Robert Hurt.

Most of the 22 are freshmen first elected in November 2010.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee responded to the AAN effort by pointing again to the House GOP budget authored by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

“No matter how much secret money groups like this spend, they’re trying to defend the indefensible, and that is the Republican plan to end Medicare and raise health care costs for seniors,” said DCCC press secretary Jesse Ferguson.

Republicans have a long way to go in evening out the fight over Medicare, which helped flip a GOP-leaning congressional district in upstate New York into Democratic hands in May.

But the GOP has shown that it’s capable of using the entitlements debate to its advantage. In 2010, Republican candidates and outside groups hammered Democratic members of Congress for voting to end the Medicare Advantage program as part of the Affordable Care Act.

The AAN campaign highlights the close relationship between that organization and its policy-oriented partner group, the American Action Forum. The new mail and advertising campaign is based on an AAF study that was released last week, concluding that a Democratic-backed proposal to change the Medicare Part D rebate structure would lead to a rise in drug premiums.

The American Action Network spent over $26 million in the 2010 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making it one of the most influential outside groups of the midterm campaign.

The group’s new print advertisements will begin appearing Thursday and the mailings are expected to start reaching voters in the next few days.