#nickrahall

A month ago, the NRCC released an ad attacking West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall. In it, they claimed that he supported Obamacare, thus cutting Medicare by $700 billion. We covered the lie then. Apparently, the NRCC wasn’t paying attention, because they are using the lie—AGAIN —n another attack against Rahall.

Factcheck.org did not look kindly on Rep. Nick Rahall’s (D-WV) latest ad, accusing him of taking his opponent’s words out of context and twisting the facts in order to scare seniors:

Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia takes a quote from his Republican opponent, Evan Jenkins, out of context to falsely imply that Jenkins is “comfortable” with raising “seniors’ out-of-pocket costs” for Medicare by $6,000. Actually, Jenkins was talking about nominal copays for Medicaid — not Medicare.

The TV ad, titled “Listens,” is the latest example of what we call “Mediscare” — a distortion of an opponent’s position on Medicare to scare seniors.

It looks like Rahall is running scared since West Virginians have caught on to his anti-coal record and have begun to speak out in ads against the 38 year incumbent:

In his latest campaign ad, Nick Rahall claims he opposed cap-and-trade and is fighting the EPA’s efforts to kill West Virginia coal jobs.

What Rahall left out of his ad was any mention of his long record of cap-and-trade happy talk, like when, in 2009, Rahall said cap-and-trade wouldn’t hurt West Virginia:

In response to today’s newly-proposed rule from the Obama administration to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) announced he would be co-sponsoring a bill to block the EPA’s proposed limits. According to The Hill:

“There is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and the Obama Administration has got it wrong once again,” Rahall said in a statement. “This new regulation threatens our economy and does so with an apparent disregard for the livelihoods of our coal miners and thousands of families throughout West Virginia.”

Flashback to an April 2009 interview, however, when Rahall told the coal industry it had “to be at the table” on cap-and-trade and regulations. The Rahall of 2009 sounds a lot more accommodating than the Rahall of today.

In an interview this morning on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) claimed he didn't vote for a carbon tax when he voted for the Progressive Caucus budget:

"Yeah, and if you read that Progressive budget, the vote that was on the floor of the House, there is no mention of her carbon tax. What I voted for in that Progressive budget was the revenues that would have been derived from incomes on the $250,000 and above income group in our country, the tax revenue that would have been derived from a tax on the upper income. That’s why I voted for the Progressive budget. Now I'm not for any carbon tax, make no mistake about it. I have voted against carbon taxes in the past. I've introduced the legislation saying no carbon tax. So, you now, out of 22,000-some votes I’ve cast in the Congress, John, it’s easy to find something that maybe can be interpreted to be in a bill in the after the fact documents that come out, such as happened on this Progressive budget vote. But I am not for a carbon tax, and make no mistake about it."

In 2009, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) complained about insurance companies increasing healthcare premiums.

What he wouldn't tell West Virginians was that under ObamaCare they would end up with insurance premiums higher than the national average:

In 1976, Americans tuned-in to "Happy Days," "Disco Duck" ruled the airwaves, and Nick Rahall was first elected to Congress. Rahall's more than 36 years in Washington mean that Rahall has now spent 56.8% of his life in Congress: