2014 NC Senate debate: on Health Care

Thom Tillis: Repeal ObamaCare; it's not a government responsibility

Tillis: Strongly Disagree

Question topic: The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) should be repealed by Congress.

Tillis: Strongly Agree

Thom Tillis: Voting for ObamaCare is a fire-able offense

10 things to know about Thom Tillis:
• Not born in North Carolina. Tillis was actually born in Jacksonville FL, and moved 18 times before graduating high school. He didn't settle in N.C. until 1998.
• Played a role in the state constitutional same-sex marriage ban. As speaker, he supported the ban and helped lead the state House to put the amendment on the ballot.
• Said "proudest moment" was support from a pro-life group, National Right to Life: 'More than any organization I can think of, I'm proud that they recognize the work that we've done to save the lives of the unborn."
• Called the Affordable Care Act Sen. Kay Hagan's "fireable offense." An MSNBC commentator asked Tillis what Hagan's "fireable offense" was: "First, her decisive vote on ObamaCare," Tillis said, adding that a big part of his job as Speaker is "cleaning up Kay Hagan's mess when she was sitting in the state Senate."
• Helped draft a major tax reform bill to reduce individual and corporate rates.

Kay Hagan: AdWatch: Hagan promised wrongly that all can keep insurance

The group is planning to spend $2.5 million to air the ads in major media markets in those states for three weeks. Last fall, Americans for Prosperity spent $16 million on ads attacking ObamaCare. The new ads play off Obama's vow that people who like their health insurance plans can keep them. "I was shocked when I got the notice that my health care policy was canceled," says a Chapel Hill resident, in the ad targeting Hagan. "Kay Hagan told us, if you like your insurance plan and your doctors, you can keep them. That just wasn't true."

Hagan's campaign released a statement calling the AFP ad a "new smear" and decrying the outside money being spent in North Carolina.

Thom Tillis: AdWatch: ObamaCare is a disaster

An ad by Thom Tillis blasts Hagan's support of the Affordable Care Act. The ad launches next week with a $300,000 buy.

In his ad, Tillis calls the health law "a disaster." Tillis says, "And the president won't admit it. Kay Hagan enabled President Obama's worst ideas. She refuses to clean up his mess. So you and I have to clean up hers."

A Hagan spokeswoman said Tillis shares the blame for higher premiums, citing some health care experts who have said the state's decision--supported by Tillis--not to run its own health care exchange has resulted in less competition and generally higher premiums. Though Hagan supports ObamaCare, she has co-sponsored a bill that would allow people to keep their current policy.

Kay Hagan: I'd vote for ObamaCare again, but do "sensible fixes"

Hagan and her party are hoping she'll be spared despite the problems with ObamaCare. Some 473,000 state residents have recently been told their health policies would be canceled after the president and Hagan pledged that people who liked their plans could keep them. "She appears to be a pawn in the hands of the Obama administration," [said one GOP opponent].

Acknowledging the problems with ObamaCare, Hagan said she's working on "sensible fixes" and insisted that the outcome of the campaign wouldn't turn exclusively on the Affordable Care Act. Instead, she pointed to her work on local issues. When pressed about whether she would back the health care law if she had another chance, Hagan said: "Yeah, I would vote for it again. People have to realize that the cost of health care was getting out of reach for everybody."

Thom Tillis: AdWatch: TV PAC attack on ObamaCare is a "badge of honor"

The Senate Majority PAC is spending $750,000 on a 30-second spot defending Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan on the federal health care while attacking Tillis The ad will run statewide for two weeks, PAC officials said. It's the second pro-Hagan ad they've run in N.C., spending near $400,000 in November.

In the new ad, they defend Hagan's support of the Affordable Care Act, without ever referring to the act or its commonly known name, ObamaCare. Instead, they tout her support of legislation that "forced insurance companies to cover cancer and other pre-existing conditions." Tillis, it says, "sides with insurance companies." It's a reference to Tillis' opposition to the health care law.

Tillis' campaign put a message on Twitter saying: "It is a badge of honor to be attacked by Harry Reid--I'll work night and day to beat Kay Hagan and overthrow Reid's majority."

Kay Hagan: AdWatch: Targeted by RNC robocalls for support of ObamaCare

The targets besides Hagan are Reps. Gary Peters (MI) and Bruce Braley (IA), Sens. Mark Warner (VA), Mark Begich (AK), Dick Durbin (IL), Mary Landrieu (LA), Jeff Merkley (OR), Mark Pryor (AR), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), and Mark Udall (CO). The robocall script reads:

"President Obama and the Democrats said you could keep your healthcare plan under ObamaCare. Now we know [SENATOR] actually VOTED to make it more difficult. Call [SENATOR] at (XXX)-XXX-XXX & ask why [he/she] lied."

The robocalls are a response to Democrats launching the "GOP Shutdown Watch" campaign, highlighting Republican senate candidates who supported the partial federal government shutdown.

Kay Hagan: AdWatch: Voted against consumers keeping pre-ObamaCare plans

Who is paying for those negative ads? Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group that doesn't identify the source of much of its funding, has begun airing a series of ads attacking Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., for their support of the Affordable Care Act. The ads suggest that Landrieu and Hagan are responsible for a health care law that will increase "health spending by $6,777 for a typical family of four" and that, because of its mandate that businesses provide subsidized health coverage to workers, it is "already reducing full-time employment."

Thom Tillis: Do everything in our power to undo ObamaCare

"Republicans should do everything in our power to undo it. That means using every tool available to us including this CR fight," he said in a statement to The Hill.

GOP operatives say there's little downside for candidates to embrace the "defund" movement--especially those who are facing primary opponents. "There is no downside to coming out against defunding ObamaCare if you're a Senate candidate," said one longtime GOP strategist. For Senate candidates who aren't already in Congress, especially, there's little political danger, he says.