Shelley Berkley Mocks Dean Heller With Country Song About Medicare

Medicare and country music are both big in Nevada, so Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley is putting the two together in a radio ad attacking Sen. Dean Heller (R) in their Senate contest.

Heller, who was appointed to fill out the term of disgraced Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), had the distinction of voting for the House Republican budget that would have privatized Medicare when he was a congressman, then voting for it again when the Senate took it up.

"I’m proud to be the only member of Congress who will get to vote for it twice," Heller said at the time.

Democrats argue that the Ryan plan -- which would start a voucher-like system where seniors would buy insurance in the private market with government aid -- essentially ends Medicare. And that's where the Berkley song picks up.

It was a radical plan to end Medicare.

Dean Heller voted for it. We should’ve stopped him there.

But Heller was appointed to fill a Senate seat and proudly voted once again for Medicare’s defeat. Once is not enough to show how much you care. You went and voted two times to kill my Medicare.

Oh Dean Heller that wasn’t very nice. I wish they’d let me vote against you twice.

Nevada has more than 300,000 residents on Medicare, more than half of which are senior citizens -- a statistic that leads the nation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.