FOR CHILDREN: Pryor at news conference today with a Children's beneficiary family --- Jason Green and his wife Jennifer and their children Max and Claire. Brian Chilson



I dunno. The Mark Pryor ad above is solid enough on facts. Among the victims of Rep. Tom Cotton’s indiscriminate budget slashing in pursuit of the Club for Growth agenda, based on his votes, are everything from Social Security and Medicare to disaster relief money to Children’s Hospital to, yes, medical research that can be useful against dread diseases such as the Ebola virus. Votes do have specific consequences. But …. 

It’s also true that Cotton has had opportunities to make up his votes on some of these issues, if not always on the critical measures that actually got approved. And, yes, there’s some room for this Cotton camp response to such  scare ads:

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Cotton spokesman David Ray responded to the ad, saying: “Senator Pryor’s desperation is comical. In Senator Pryor’s world, he doesn’t have to take responsibility for rubber-stamping the Obama agenda over 90% of the time, but wants Arkansans to believe Tom Cotton is responsible for everything from Ebola to crabgrass and male-pattern baldness.”

It’s a shame that overly dramatic ads must be employed. The facts are compelling. Tom Cotton wants to strangle government. If you agree with him, vote for him. Many good and worthy programs would suffer if he prevails, however. If you believe that, vote for Pryor. For example: Families at Children’s Hospital could count on less from that institution if Cotton’s solo vote against children’s a $6 million appropriation to support Children’s residencies had prevailed, but even other Republicans from Arkansas didn’t go along with that one.

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