WASHINGTON, May 31, 2009 – In letters to newspapers and other media outlets on Saturday, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group called for Republicans and Democrats to “put aside partisan ideology.”
Noting that Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) is soon due to introduce comprehensive health reform legislation which he calls "the cause of my life," Larry McNeely, U.S. PIRG's Health Care Reform Advocate, lamented a new crop of attack ads.
“As Kennedy, President Barack Obama, and Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and a few leading Republicans have worked across the aisle to face this serious national challenge, opponents have taken to the airwaves with campaign-style attack ads,” McNeely noted in a letter sent to several outlets around the nation.
“Courtesy of groups like Conservatives for Patients Rights and Patients United Now, these spots are no more than political hatchet jobs from the same people who brought you the swiftboating of Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and the tax ‘tea parties,’”
Rather than focus on partisan ideology, members of Congress from both parties must focus on passing health care reform, McNeely urged.
“If current trends continue, the U.S. PIRG's recent report, Health Care in Crisis, estimates that the average price of an employer-sponsored family health policy could double from $12,680 last year to well over $24,691 by 2016,” he pointed out.
“It's time Congress put aside partisan ideology and maneuvering and delivered health reform legislation for the people they represent,” McNeely concluded.
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U.S. PIRG, federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.
