Taxes and Benefits Star in Closing House Ads

Two of the major House-focused outside groups announced their final sets of TV advertisements Tuesday morning, with the GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund and its affiliated non-profit, American Action Network, releasing six new ads and Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC announcing 10 new ads in nine congressional districts. In seats like freshman GOP Rep. Quico Canseco's Texas 23rd District and others, these closing spots will compete directly against each other.

But even when the ads won't be competing for airtime in the same media markets, their messages are pitted firmly against each other. The closing arguments get to the heart of the argument both parties have been making for pretty much the last two years. Democrats and Republicans alike are concentrating their final pitches on what the other side wants to take from you, the voter. To Republicans, it's your hard-earned income, which they say Democrats have voted to tax at a higher rate. To Democrats, it's benefits you might rely on, especially Medicare and Social Security but also education funding and access to women's health care services.

In Illinois's 10th District, CLF's narrator intones, "Income. You work so hard for it, and it's never enough. But Brad Schneider supports an extreme tax hike on the middle class, hurting families who can least afford it." On the screen, hands move money from jars marked "retirement" and "college" to a larger jar marked "taxes."

As the GOP argues Democratic tax hikes siphon money from families' college funds, House Majority PAC's closing ad in Minnesota's 8th District goes after Republican Rep. Chip Cravaack on education's funding side. "We teach our children to meet the challenges of tomorrow," HMP's narrator says. "That's how we create good jobs. So why did Chip Cravaack vote to cut funding for reading and math, and cut financial aid for kids who want to go to college? Education creates jobs, and, it's who we are."

AAN's health care hit against Florida 10th District Democratic challenger Val Demings goes after her for supporting "government intrusion" and "unelected bureaucrats" meddling with health care, but the ad's main pitch is on health care costs. "Demings supports a tax increase on health insurance that will increase your premiums. With health care costs as high as they are, we can't afford to let Val Demings make them even higher."

Again, as the GOP makes the tax argument on health care, Democrats are hitting Republicans on cutting health services in several House seats, including Rep. Brian Bilbray's, R-Calif. "Would you vote like Brian Bilbray?" says the House Majority PAC ad in California's 52nd District. "To end guaranteed Medicare benfits, like Brian Bilbray did? If you sat in this chair, would you vote to let insurance companies charge women more than men?" The argument from both Democrats and Republicans is simple: You can't afford to be represented by the other side.

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