Good morning from Augusta. Maine’s 2nd Congressional District is the oldest part of the nation’s oldest state by median age, putting Social Security and Medicare — the two most important government programs for seniors — at the forefront of the frantic race there.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin has long said he would support no changes to the programs for current enrollees or people soon to be in the system while being open to hikes in the eligibility age, though he backed a 2015 Republican budget outline that targeted billions in Social Security savings and would turn Medicare into a voucher system for new enrollees by 2024.
His chief opponent, Assistant Maine House Minority Leader Jared Golden, a Democrat, has vowed to fight rollbacks of the two programs and supported moving toward a “Medicare for all” program.
But a new Republican ad wrongly says Golden’s past support for a Maine referendum amounts to Social Security raid. Claims from Democrats that Poliquin would “gut” Social Security got a “mostly false” rating from Politifact. Here’s what you need to know.
The new Republican ad makes a problematic claim on Medicare and falsely associates Social Security benefits with Question 1 on Maine’s ballot. A new ad from the National Republican Congressional Committee makes two claims on Golden. The first is that a “Medicare for all” scheme would end the program “as we know it.”
To read the rest of “Where 2nd District hopefuls stand and where ads misfire on Medicare, Social Security,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
