Driehaus and Brown hold call to address Chabot's Medicare claims

State Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill) held a conference call with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) Wednesday afternoon to address what the Driehaus camp called the latest unfounded smear from the campaign of U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Westwood).

In the call, Driehaus reiterated his "commitment to protecting Social Security and Medicare." The Driehaus call was to hit back on a ad from the Chabot camp accusing Driehaus of wanting to cut Medicare by $193 million.

The Driehaus camp previously called Chabot "down and desperate" for releasing the ad.

"When you look at my record when it comes to the State House, I have been a champion for seniors," Driehaus said. "I have worked to expand health care coverage, worked to expand prescription drug coverage, worked closely with Gov. Strickland on a property tax cut for seniors that we just passed in this last budget."

Driehaus also criticized Chabot for what he called the Congressman's record of supporting massive cuts to critical health care programs and privatizing Social Security.

"The Congressman is desperately trying to misrepresent me, because he certainly doesn't want people to know the truth."

Brown said that Driehaus has no intention of cutting Medicare.

"On the contrary, Steve Chabot has shown several times that he's willing to allow insurance companies to get overpaid by Medicare and by taxpayers while cutting benefits for senior citizens," Brown said.