'Disgusted' Rep. Buerkle Fires Back at DCCC 'Mediscare' Calls

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Human Events:

“Disgusted” is how a freshman Republican House member told HUMAN EVENTS she felt after a day of her office answering telephone calls generated by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that led to tearful constituents asking whether the GOP lawmaker wanted to “end Medicare.”

“Some of my constituents were in tears and probably can’t sleep tonight because robocalls from the DCCC told them that the [House Republican] budget will get rid of their Medicare,” an outraged Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R.-N.Y.) told us. “Those kind of tactics are mean-spirited and they lack integrity.

“I’m disgusted at the DCCC because, clearly, they put politics above people.”

A clearly angry Buerkle contacted HUMAN EVENTS last Thursday evening, after her district office was deluged with what she said were “at least one hundred telephone calls from constituents generated by robocalls from the DCCC claiming that I was supporting a ‘plan to end Medicare’ that increases the debt because of ‘more tax breaks for millionaires and corporations.’ ”

“Finally, after our staff left in the early evening, I began answering some of the calls myself,” recalled Buerkle, one of three former nurses elected to the House in the Republican sweep last fall and a strong supporter of the Medicare reform plan in the GOP budget. “Some of my constituents were in tears, and asked me why Republicans wanted to get rid of their Medicare. I explained—to several callers, in fact—that the Republican plan does not ‘get rid of Medicare,’ that it doesn’t even affect anyone over 54, and preserves health care for the next generation of senior citizens.”

The Syracuse-area lawmaker also told HUMAN EVENTS that the technology in the robocalls “apparently permitted the person receiving them to just press a number and be connected to my office. And they were urged to protest what the Democrats claimed was the Republican position on Medicare. This is something we’re going to have to face and deal with.”