The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) announced today that it is sending the below letter and apology to U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) regarding his protestations to Politico today that he was not in fact the 60th vote for ObamaCare:
United States Senator Jon Tester
724 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Tester:
We read today’s story in Politico in which your office took strong exception to the NRSC’s repeated characterization of you as the 60th and deciding vote to pass President Obama’s unpopular health spending bill.
We have also reviewed the video of the Senate floor vote from last year that your office also provided to Politico, which clearly shows that in fact you were the 52nd vote that day in support of ObamaCare. It does appear, as you suggest, that your Democrat colleague Senator Ben Nelson, the author of the infamous “Cornhusker Kickback” was in fact, technically speaking, the 60th “yea” vote that day.
So you were correct and we apologize.
· You were in fact just the 52nd vote that day to cut Medicare by $500 billion which will hurt Montana seniors.
· You were in fact just the 52nd vote that day to raise taxes by $570 billion which will hurt Montana families and small businesses.
· You were in fact just the 52nd vote that day to implement the individual mandate that compels every citizen of Montana to obtain health insurance under threat of federal law.
· You were in fact just the 52nd vote that day to pass at least $118 billion in new unfunded Medicaid mandates onto the states, including over $175 million for Montana alone in just the first five years.
It’s important that we have that cleared up now.
We just have one question for you though, Senator:
Since ObamaCare required 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to pass, and it received exactly 60 votes, how many votes would it have received had you listened to your constituents in Montana and voted against it? Or, to put it differently, is there a difference between “52nd vote” and “responsible for ObamaCare?”
We look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Brian Walsh
NRSC Communications Director
