Knowles Airs First Candidate Sponsored Negative TV AD
Former Two-Term Governor Takes Sudden Interest in Helping Seniors
Anchorage, AK - Echoing the misleading rhetoric of national Democrats, Tony Knowles launched yet another misleading attack on Senator Lisa Murkowski in an attempt to further scare seniors and distract Alaskans from his own failed prescription drug record.
Tony Knowles was so concerned with the high cost of prescription drugs in Alaska that he waited until the last five months of his eight year reign as governor before appointing a task force to study the issue. This fact is conveniently left out of the Tony advertisement as well as the fact that Alaska had the highest prescription drug costs in the country when Tony left office.
Instead, Tony attacks Senator Lisa Murkowski for siding with the majority in Congress, the AARP and President Bush in passing the Medicare Modernization Act. Tony attacks Senator Lisa Murkowski for wanting to ensure that drugs brought into the United States from foreign countries are as safe as those bought at home. And Tony attacks Senator Lisa Murkowski for voting to ensure that seniors have choices in their Medicare decisions - not an inadequate one size fits all solution.
Tony fails to note that Senator Lisa Murkowski's efforts increased access for seniors under Medicare through an Alaska only provision providing Alaska doctors with a 50% increase in funding for Medicare services. Tony also forgets to tell seniors that for the first time in history they will have a prescription drug benefit providing $600 in annual assistance - $10.5 million, to almost 10,000 Alaska seniors without any drug coverage at all.And Tony ignores that the bill Senator Lisa Murkowski worked to pass was the first time in 38 years that Medicare had been reformed.
If Tony was really concerned about seniors he would have worked to reduce drug prices in Alaska while he had the chance as Governor. Instead of attacking the progress others have made and continuing to peddle misleading mediscare rhetoric, Tony should help to educate Alaskans about the benefits that are available under Medicare.
Tony fails to mention in his new TV ad:
Senator Murkowski voted to ensure that the necessary safety precautions governing prescription drugs in the United States would have to apply to imported drugs as well. The American Medical Association notes that without the protections found in the United States, there are no guarantees that the drugs patients order are the drugs they receive. The AMA has called for any system of importation to include strict standards not only for what drugs would qualify but also for the manufacturing facilities, labeling and packaging, and the tracking of chains of custody. (AMANews, 7/5/04)
Senator Murkowski voted against mandatory price caps for prescription drug premiums that would have forced plans to standardize and reduce services. Seniors would be left with no real options - plans only offering the same bare-bones services. (S.1, #229, 6/19/03)
Senator Murkowski voted for the Medicare Modernization bill with language similar to what Senator Tom Daschle introduced in 2000 to prohibit the government from negotiating with plans and manufactures over drug prices because prices under Medicare are based on competitive forces - not government price setting. This 'non interference provision' has had strong bipartisan support in previous bills, including a Daschle sponsored bill in 2000 that had 33 Democratic co-sponsors. (S.2541, 5/10/03) The Congressional Budget Office estimates that allowing private plans to negotiate will lead to massive savings that would not be available through government negotiation. (CBO letter to Senator Frist, 1/23/04, HR1, #459, 11/25/04)