The National Republican Congressional Committee is using a controversial report from the Congressional Budget Office on ObamaCare in a new attack ad against Florida House candidate Alex Sink.
The report has sparked a battle between Democrats and Republicans since it was released last week. While it does indicate the equivalent of 2.3 million workers would be lost by 2021, Democrats have argued the decline in jobs will result from workers having the freedom not to take dissatisfying or part-time jobs just to gain health insurance.
{mosads}Republicans, however, argue the law amounts to just another entitlement program and provides Americans with disincentives to work.
The NRCC’s new ad, shared first with The Hill, ties Sink to President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), charging that her “loyalty is to them, not us,” as footage of the Democratic leaders flash across the screen.
“Why else would she continue to support ObamaCare?” the narrator adds, noting that hundreds of thousands of Floridians will reportedly lose their healthcare plans under ObamaCare, and echoing the Republican claim that millions could be cut from Medicare.
It goes on: “And now, non-partisan government analysts say Obamacare will cost our economy up to 2.5 million jobs.”
“But Alex Sink still supports it. She’s fighting for them, not us,” the narrator closes.
The ad is part of the more than $1.2 million the NRCC is spending on television in the district, after increasing its reservation there on Tuesday.
ObamaCare has become a central issue in the race, with Republicans repeatedly attacking Sink for her support of the law, which they believe will ultimately be a liability for her on Election Day, now just three weeks away.
But Democrats have hit back, with Sink charging in a recent ad that Republican David Jolly would “go back to letting insurance companies do whatever they want.”
“Instead of repealing the health care law, we need to keep what’s right and fix what’s wrong,” Sink said in the ad — a message, Democrats say, aligned with the majority of Americans, who polling shows would like to fix the law rather than scrap it entirely.
Still, Republicans see the CBO report as another opportunity to hit Democrats on the law.
Florida’s 13th District became more competitive for Democrats with former Rep. Bill Young’s (R) passing, and it’s a top target for the party, but the closeness of the race has sparked a flood of outside money — more than $4 million pledged as of last week — from groups attempting to sway the outcome.