Menendez Opponent Bob Hugin Bankrolled GOP Officials Threatening to Take Away Entitlements
Bloomfield, NJ – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez today received the endorsement of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), just weeks after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that if Republicans retain control of Congress, they will make it their core mission to cut funding to vital programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in order to pay for the GOP’s debt-exploding tax cuts to the super-rich and big corporations.
“I’ve worked for decades to protect these time-tested programs that our seniors depend upon and I won’t let our hard work be gutted by greedy Republican ideologues who would rather give a $2 trillion tax break to the nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations than help our nation’s most vulnerable,” said Sen. Menendez. “My opponent, greedy, drug company CEO Bob Hugin, backed the disastrous Trump Tax Scam and supported Trumpcare which would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and left millions without insurance and Medicaid coverage. Bob Hugin would vote lockstep with Donald Trump to make the rich richer, leaving New Jersey’s seniors struggling to get by. The stakes couldn’t be higher.”
“I’m here to endorse Sen. Menendez for re-election to the United States Senate,” said NCPSSM President and CEO Max Richtman, who presented Sen. Menendez with a pair of boxing gloves to keep up the fight in Congress to protect Medicare and Social Security. “Sen. Menendez has voted right every time; he has a score of 100%, every time. He has voted consistently every time in Congress and since coming to the Senate for seniors and to protect programs seniors depend on. His opponent couldn’t be more different—just the opposite. His opponent comes from an industry, a pharmaceutical industry that has consistently put profits over people.”
Sen. Menendez strongly supports Social Security and opposes any policies and actions that weaken the Social Security trust fund. Bob is also a cosponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act.
As a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee that sets national health policy, Menendez was instrumental in authoring, passing, and now protecting the ACA, which helped strengthen Medicare by expanding access to care and lowering costs of prescription drugs for seniors. The ACA also expanded Medicaid which secured healthcare coverage for hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans.
Bob Hugin, who made his fortune ripping off cancer patients, donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect Donald Trump and gave millions to right-wing candidates and causes, like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and he extreme-right Heritage Foundation who have made it their mission to repeal the ACA. Hugin was an early supporter of Trump’s plan to overhaul the health care system, which would have kicked millions of Americans off their insurance.
Bob Menendez fought hard against the ACA repeal efforts last year. Trumpcare would have imposed a tax on seniors under 65 buying their own insurance and repealed Medicaid expansion, leaving seniors with nowhere to turn.
Bob Menendez is a cosponsor of the Medicare at 55 Act, which would allow individuals between 55 and 64 to buy into the program. This will help the 3.6 million seniors in that age range who are currently without insurance access comprehensive, affordable, and quality healthcare.
As CEO of Celgene, Hugin settled a lawsuit for $280 million that alleged the company had misled cancer patients and defrauded Medicare, Medicaid and TriCare, the veterans’ health system.
Bob Hugin also doubled the price of his blockbuster cancer medication on his watch, including three separate price hikes in 2017 alone.
Bob Menendez has fought to lower the prices of prescription drugs by supporting the CREATES and SKIKES Acts. Bob also cosponsored two pieces of legislation that would ban the use of gag clauses that prevent pharmacists from telling their customers it may be cheaper to pay out-of-pocket rather than using their insurance.
Founded in 1982 by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s oldest son, Congressman James Roosevelt, NCPSSM’s goal is to preserve and protect Social Security and Medicare.
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