The Democrat running for lieutenant governor charged Wednesday that Republicans are being hypocritical when it comes to health care. Republican Scott Walker’s running mate for lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, is featured in a recent television ad from the Walker campaign. In the ad Kleefisch credits the “highest quality health care system in the world” for helping her beat cancer. The ad charges that Democrat candidate for governor Tom Barrett “supports of a government takeover of our health care” which would “increase costs, lower quality and put government in charge of our health care choices.”
But Barrett’s running mate, state Representative Tom Nelson, pointed out that Kleefisch has received government health care through her husband’s position as a state Representative. During a press conference in Madison, Nelson argued that the GOP ticket wants to deny others access to similar coverage through cuts to BadgerCare. “Scott Walker has talked openly and candidly about cutting BadgerCare time limits, and making it harder for people to qualify for the program,” Nelson claimed. And Nelson pointed out that Kleefisch has been the beneficiary of taxpayer financed health care through the coverage provided to her husband, a member of the state legislature. “She was able to access this system and afford this system when many people in this state cannot,” said Nelson, who cited figures from the Department of Employee Trust Funds.