Senator Daines Lies and Disrespects ALL Montanans

The Most Offensive Political Ad Ever

October 6, 2020

Senator Steve Daines (Republican, Montana) is currently running the most offensive campaign advertisement I can remember in his bid for re-election. There are a lot of offensive political ads, especially in a highly contested race, but usually the really offensive ads come from PACs, not from the campaign itself. However, this ad is directly from the campaign - and directly from the mouth of Senator Daines.

In this ad, Senator Daines directly lies to the people of Montana. Either he believes that all Montanans are too stupid to know that he is lying, or he is not intelligent enough to understand what he has done in office and what his votes mean. Either of these conditions ought to be sufficient for the Senator to resign his office in disgrace - either because he is deliberately misrepresenting his constituency and disrespecting his constituency, or because he has demonstrated his complete and unmitigted incompetence to hold his office.

In the ad, Senator Daines states that his opponent has lied about Senator Daines' votes to allow insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions. The Senator states that his opponent has used Senator Daines' votes to "fix the Obamacare mess" as a vote to allow insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions. Well, it is true that Senator Daines' opposition has used the Senators votes to supposedly "fix the Obamacare mess" as votes to allow insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions. That is because the Senator's votes to supposedly "fix the Obamacare mess" ARE votes to allow insurance companies to deny coverage for preexisting conditions.

When Senator Daines voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act (AKA "Obamacare"), these were not votes to pass a bill on the floor that would protect patients from denial of health insurance coverage because a medical expense was deemed to be related to a preexisting condition by an insurance company or an insurance company's bureaucracy. It was not a vote to pass a new bill that would prohibit insurance companies, HMOs, medical sharing cooperatives, or other organizations that pay or supplement costs of medical care from denying coverage on any charges deemed medically necessary by the medical provider and the patient. It was not a vote to prohibit insurance companies from having clauses or riders on health insurance policies that excluded preexisting conditions from coverage. No, these were just votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. As such, these were absolutely votes to allow insurance companies to deny coverage for individuals with preexisting conditions. Senator Daines lied when he stated that these were not votes to allow insurance companies to deny coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

And this was not a single isolated incident where maybe Senator Daines wasn't properly prepared for the vote (which would still bring his fitness for his office into question), but was a repeated occurrence defining a clear pattern. And not only that, but the Senator took pride in these votes and discussed them, bragging about progress toward repealing Obamacare. In fact, Senator Daines brags about these votes to allow insurance companies to deny claims for individuals with preexisting conditions IN THIS VERY SAME ADVERTISEMENT where he is falsely claiming that his opposition is lying.

Senator Daines further lies in this advertisement and states that he has never taken an action to allow insurance companies to deny patients for preexisting conditions, that he never will allow insurance companies to deny patients based on preexisting conditions, and that he has been fighting and will fight to prevent any insurance company from denying patients based on preexisting conditions. Anyone who has looked at the Senator's voting record, or has heard or read his bragging about this knows that these statements are lies. We are not talking about what he will or will not do, or what he may do in some hypothetical future. We are talking about what he HAS DONE and has promised to continue to do: vote to "fix this Obamacare mess" without any replacement in place or even waiting in the wings.

Senator Daines believes all Montanans are too stupid and ignorant to realize that he has voted to allow insurance companies to deny patients because of preexisting conditions - even when he states in his commercial about it that he has. He believes that Montanans are so ignorant that they will just take him at his word, even when he contradicts himself and blatantly lies to them. Just for this complete lack of respect for any Montanans, he ought to resign his seat in the Senate - but that would require Senator Daines to have even a vague sense of morals or ethics - which this ad shows that he is completely lacking. If this ad does not show Senator Daines' complete lack of ethics or morals and his complete disdain for all Montanans, then this ad shows that Senator Daines has absolutely no idea what he is doing in Washington and does not have even a rudimentary understanding of what the bills and motions he is voting on are or what they stand for. And if this is the case, then it is an even stronger argument that Senator Daines ought to immediately resign his seat in the Senate.

Senator Daines responded on October 16, 2020, further demonstrating his abhorrence and disrespect for Montanans and his complete lack of ethics or competence.