VAN METER, Iowa – On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, released a new ad titled “Promised” that former U.S. Rep. David Young’s campaign says is full of distortions and mistruths about her Republican challenger and her record in Congress.
“Cindy Axne and her campaign are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. Axne is rehashing the same distortions and mistruths she did in the last election, while not being honest about her own record on standing up to her own party,” Young for Iowa campaign manager Andy Swanson responded.
The Young campaign fact checked claims in the ad.
Claim: David Young failed to protect people with pre-existing conditions
Fact: It’s not surprising to see the Axne campaign touting the same distortions and mistruths about David’s record as they did in 2018. David Young has fought to protect people with pre-existing conditions. Young’s first ad, “Alli,” highlights one story of Young going to bat on behalf of an Iowan with a pre-existing condition being denied coverage. The American Health Care Act included four layers of protection for those with pre-existing conditions, which Young was responsible for getting in the bill. It is also notable the Axne campaign didn’t use this Des Moines Register piece that verifies his work on protecting those with pre-existing conditions. Instead, their “source” for this claim is the Des Moines Register’s endorsement of her – not exactly a neutral article.
Claim: David Young changed his vote when GOP leaders pulled their support of his campaign.
Fact: Axne is still obsessed with this conspiracy theory. She apparently doesn’t remember when the AHCA came up for a vote, Iowa had already lost Aetna and Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield from the individual market, and Medica was considering pulling out as well. This would have left 70,000 Iowans in 94 counties without health care. That horrifying fact, and that Young’s objection to the bill’s lack of protections for those with pre-existing conditions was fixed with his amendment adding those four layers of protection, gave him the comfort to vote for the bill. Axne’s claim that Young caved is simply false – the fact is Young was looking out for his constituents the whole time.
Claim: Cindy Axne stood up to her party.
Fact: Cindy Axne has voted 95% of the time with Nancy Pelosi. While she may have broken with her party on $5 million for computers, she was OK with Democrats using the CARES Act, whose purpose was to provide relief for small businesses, for their partisan wish list. That wish list included $25 million for the Kennedy Center, $1.2 billion to require airlines to use a more expensive fuel to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, $600 million to the National Endowment of the Arts and the Humanities, and $500 million to the Institute of Museum and Library Science.
She didn’t stand up to her party when they rammed through a rule change to allow proxy voting. She then took advantage of it herself to give Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District vote to liberal east coast Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland without telling her constituents she wasn’t showing up for work.
Axne did not stand up to her party on the Public Option, which will close up to 52 of Iowa’s 90 rural hospitals, leaving Iowans without access to health care, increased taxes, and even larger federal deficit.
She didn’t stand up to her party when their solution to campaign finance reform was to make taxpayers foot the bill for her political campaign upwards of $5 million.
How can Axne stand up to her party when she tells Democrats it’s important to “make sure that speaker Pelosi continues to hold the gavel?” (Clip starts at the 2:10:51 mark)
The fact that she also tries to have it both ways on the HEROES Act should make everyone question her real motives behind her claims. Axne touted the HEROES Act in an interview on KMA Radio on May 14, before issuing a statement announcing she was voting against it the next day. Yet, in an interview with Raccoon Valley Radio, on August 6 on coronavirus relief, Axne is quoted, “We had our bill available back in May.”
Axne touted the bill, votes against the bill, then touts the bill again.