Rep. Barrett’s seniors TV ad conflicts with his voting reality

(The author is a longtime political consultant and former executive of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.)

Over the course of an hour watching news on CNN, at each commercial break, I witnessed a barrage of 30-second TV ads paid for by the American Action Network, a dark money organization that doesn’t publicly disclose its contributors peddling the fiction spoken by a pleasant lady named Judy who speaks directly into the camera assuring the viewers that Congressman Tom Barrett will always protect seniors.

Barrett participated in the filming of the ad, which showed him talking with constituents and jogging across a bridge wearing his running shoes and shorts and an Army T-shirt.

Does the ad’s sponsor think Barrett’s constituents will ignore the fact that Barrett was the deciding vote on the budget reconciliation bill, which passed the House by just one vote, 215-214. Donald Trump calls it “one big beautiful bill.” It now awaits action over in the Senate.

Digging into the 1,116 pages of that “one big beautiful bill “ discloses that the bill cuts Medicaid by $700 billion. Doing so triggers another $500 billion in cuts to Medicare. Does Barrett really believe that these massive cuts will not hurt seniors? The $1.2 trillion in cuts to the social safety net that Medicaid and Medicare provide goes to offset costs of extending tax cuts. The bulk of those tax cuts will benefit mainly higher income earners. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill if enacted will add more than $3 trillion to the deficit, causing the national debt to soar to a projected $59 trillion in 2035.

The TV ad ignores the reality that the proposed Medicaid and Medicare cuts provided for in the bill will actually affect seniors, half of seniors in nursing homes today are on Medicaid. Ten percent  of veterans are on Medicaid. Medicaid also covers low-income individuals who may be disabled, pregnant or dependent children. Supporters of the reconciliation bill downplay any claim that persons currently on Medicaid or Medicare will be losing benefits or will see significant increases in the cost of their medical care. They say these cuts only apply to the “elimination of waste, fraud and abuse.”

However, 13 million people are forecasted to lose Medicaid coverage over the next 10 years. Do the bill’s supporters seriously suggest that there are 13 million people currently enrolled in Medicaid who have engaged in waste, fraud or abuse warranting the loss of their Medicaid coverage? Is this the Trump Common Sense Reforms that Congressman Tom Barrett supported with his vote?

Since Barrett’s vote was essential to get to the required 215 votes in order for the bill to pass out of the House, did he make any attempt to leverage his vote? Did he negotiate with Speaker Johnson or President Trump to save any federal research grants to one of his district’s larger employers, Michigan State University? Did he get pledges of support to protect rural hospitals in his district from closing? What assurances did he get for mid-Michigan farmers amid a looming tariff war that could deny them foreign export markets? Did Barrett fight to have the budget bill provide for the rehiring of veterans unfairly fired by the DOGE geek squad at the Veterans Administration? Was reopening the Owosso social security office his only reward?

Constituents might have learned what he was able to negotiate and save from Elon Musk’s DOGE chainsaw if Barrett held in-person town halls, but he’s was advised by House leadership not to hold any. Have telephone town halls instead, they counseled — where you won’t be publicly booed.