Freedom’s Watch says Merkley cut funds; Kulongoski says ‘Merkley stood up for seniors’

Conservative advocacy organization Freedom’s Watch responded to the rebuttal from U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley's campaign to the ad it released Tuesday, saying Merkley, who is state House speaker, was simply trying to spin his way out of a decision he made in the Oregon legislature to cut funds for a program to help seniors.

"Nothing in Jeff Merkley's response does a thing to refute this simple fact: When the state budget left his House it was $4 million lighter in senior homecare funds than when he received it from the Governor,” said Freedom’s watch spokesman Tim Pearson. In short, Mr. Merkley's response deserves an 'A' from the political spinmeisters, but an 'F' from the thousands of Oregon seniors shortchanged by his leadership,”

In the ad, Freedom’s Watch says that Merkley cut $4 million dollars in funds from Oregon Project Independence, a program that helped senior citizens with at home care. The claim had originally caused controversy when U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith’s campaign released an advertisement saying the same thing two weeks ago. Merkley’s camp responded by accusing Smith and Freedom’s Watch of misleading voters; when the legislature passed the final budget for Oregon Project Independence, it had $1 million more than the program did the previous year. Freedom’s Watch said that the final number was still $4 million short from what Gov. Ted Kulongoski requested for the program.

But on Tuesday evening Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Merkley had always been supportive of seniors, and he increased spending on senior citizens by $365 million, even without the extra $4 million for Oregon Project Independence.

"The record of the 2007 legislature under Jeff Merkley's leadership is very clear -- funding for Oregon Project Independence for seniors increased by $1 million and funding for seniors and people with disabilities increased by nearly $365 million,” Kulongoski said in a statement. “I can confidently say Jeff Merkley stood up for seniors when Washington was standing up for drug and insurance companies –- privatizing social security, cutting Medicare benefits, and denying seniors the medicine they need.  Oregon seniors need Jeff Merkley in Washington."

“The Governor clearly thought Oregon seniors needed the $4 million Jeff Merkley's House cut out of his budget--why else would he have requested it in the first place?” he asked in an e-mail. “All the high-profile surrogates rushing to his defense won't change the fact that on Jeff Merkley's list of priorities, Oregon seniors fall somewhere between his personal staff (high) and paying attention to critical world events like the Russian invasion of Georgia (low).”