Yoder criticizes Young on Medicare, other mailings
By DANIEL SUDDEATH
SOUTHERN INDIANA — Ninth District Congressional candidate Shelli Yoder criticized incumbent Rep. Todd Young this week for his House mailings regarding issues such as Medicare that she regarded as an abuse of policy.
Yoder’s campaign stated that according to House disbursement records from April 1 of 2011 to March 31 of this year, Young sent out 651,072 pieces of mail at a cost of more than $293,000 to taxpayers.
“Todd Young ran for Congress back in 2010 promising voters that he would reduce spending in Washington,” said Yoder, a Democrat from Bloomington. “This kind of political hypocrisy represents what I think Hoosiers know is going on with Congress today, and I want to change that.”
Congressional mailings aren’t illegal, and a committee consisting of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans is assigned to review each mailing and approve it.
But Yoder said Young has used the mailings in a political manner instead of for informational purposes. She suggested Young was attempting to deceive people into believing he supports Medicare, though Yoder said he has voted to do away with the traditional nature of the program.
She said Young is among the top senders of mailings in the House, and that he should pay back the money spent on the literature.
“He can’t legitimately claim to be a fiscal conservative while charging taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for politically deceptive mail,” Yoder said.
Young Campaign Manager Trevor Foughty didn’t specifically quote the amount spent on mailings, but said “we plan to continue focusing on the issues that matter to Hoosiers, and not political distractions.”
And this week, one of the biggest issues has been health care after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama’s controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Young, a Republican who voted 30 times in the House to overturn all or portions of the act, said the plan will have a “negative effect on our economy and job creation” in reference to the individual mandate requiring Americans to purchase health insurance.
He said a large majority of Hoosiers oppose the law, and that “Obamacare” fails to control health care costs.
“Moving forward, I will continue to support implementing policies to allow health insurance to be purchased across state lines; to improve our costly medical malpractice system; to make health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts more prevalent; and a number of other proposals that will lower costs and increase access to care without adding to the federal bureaucracy,” Young said.
Yoder said she was pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling, as she added it will close the so called “donut hole” in Medicare prescription drug coverage, keep insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing health conditions and allow dependent children to stay on their parents’ plan up to age 26.
“These are all critical parts of the health care reform law that protect hard working families and provide them the security they need,” she said.
Click here to read Shelli’s complete press release on this issue.
Click here and here to read the reports on Todd Young’s spending published in USA Today and Roll Call.
Click here to read this original story as published online in the News and Tribune.
In the 9th, the complaint is in the mail
