Benton plays the Viagra card
The new media guy Republican state Sen. Don Benton hired to punch up his campaign for the U.S. Senate against Democratic Sen. Patty Murray has produced the campaign’s first web hit: A so-called “educational video” that uses faux person on the street interviews to accuse Murray of supporting Viagra for sex offenders as part of the federal health reform bill.
Benton announced Thursday that the video, posted on his campaign website and Youtube last week, has been viewed more than 5,000 times. It plays on a strategy Senate Republicans used in March in an attempt to derail the health reform bill, or at least make Democrats who voted for it look bad in the 2010 elections.
GOP leaders offered a series of “poison” amendments they knew Democrats would oppose because if they didn’t pass the reform bill exactly as it was sent over to them by the House, it faced further procedural delays, loss of critical support or even defeat.
One of those amendments would have prohibited the use of federal dollars to provide erectile dysfunction drugs to rapists, pedophiles or other sex offenders through new health care exchanges. The amendment, dubbed a “crass political stunt” by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, failed 57-42, meaning current federal policy remains in effect. Murray joined the Democratic majority in voting against it.
According to the Congressional Research Service, there is nothing in the new law that would “require health plans to limit the type of benefits that can be offered based on the plan beneficiary’s prior criminal conviction.”
However, a 2005 law forbids federal Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction drugs for anyone and allows states to restrict such payments. And a policy adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that same year says the use of impotence drugs by convicted sex offenders “is not appropriate and Medicaid should not pay for the cost of such drugs in such circumstances.”
Those policies remain in effect.
Here’s Benton’s spin, via his campaign manager, Brian Lohr: “We want to show the voters of Washington state exactly how Senator Murray is spending their tax dollars. Most people don’t understand why anyone would support a bill that would give Viagra to sex offenders. We’ve found that people are tired of the partisan agenda Senator Murray has pushed and this piece of the puzzle just adds to their frustration.”
Murray spokewoman Alex Glass had this response, as reported in a blog post by Brad Shannon, The Olympian’s polticial reporter: “This is a disgusting attack. Anyone who looks at Patty Murray’s record knows she has spent her career fighting to protect children and families.”
Kathie Durbin
