GOP-aligned group airs TV ads targeting Loebsack, Bustos

A group aligned with House Republicans says it's airing two weeks worth of advertising targeting Reps. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, and Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., over the Affordable Care Act.

American Action Network said Tuesday it is spending $1.3 million on television advertising in 24 congressional districts. The group is seeking to pressure Democrats in districts that President Donald Trump won last November.

'Americans were promised affordable and accessible health care, but instead they got higher premiums and fewer choices. It's time for all Members of Congress to fix our broken health care system,” Cory Bliss, the group's executive director, said.

The president and congressional Republicans have promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but Democrats are fighting it.

Bustos' office responded Wednesday: 'Cheri strongly opposes President Trump's plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act because it will cost Illinois more than 100,000 jobs, increase prescription drug costs for seniors by more than $1,000 and stick millions of low- and middle-income families with a nearly $6,000 tax hike - all so the richest 400 Americans can get an annual average tax break of $7 million.”

Joe O'Hern, a spokesman for Loebsack, said that as the congressman has been working to help rural hospitals and keep Iowans from losing health care, 'Republicans are busy spending their time putting up negative ads to defend their decision to rip health care away from those that need it most.”

American Action Network says television ads are running in the Quad-Cities, Cedar Rapids and Peoria. It did not say how much they were spending on the two lawmakers.

Last month, the group purchased $2.6 million in advertising in 41 congressional districts on the subject, including to support Reps. David Young and Rod Blum, both Iowa Republicans.

The group, which doesn't release the identities of its donors, was active in the 2016 election on the Republican side. In Iowa, it spent $700,000 in the last election cycle targeting Blum's opponent, Democrat Monica Vernon, according to the nonpartisan Center on Responsive Politics.