Last night I saw a truck with a light-up display of Mariannette Miller-Meeks as a green-faced Grinch. Who did that? –RB, Iowa City
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) did that. The DCCC — pronounced “D triple-C” by political types — announced in an email on Wednesday that it was “launching a new billboard campaign holding vulnerable Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks accountable for soaring health insurance costs” experienced by her constituents in the 1st District who buy health insurance through the ACA Marketplace since Republicans in Congress refused to extend the Biden-era enhanced premium tax credits that serve as subsidies for many. The credits expired on the last day of December, and prices go up starting Jan. 1.
The DCCC said its billboard campaign also criticizes Miller-Meeks for supporting the cuts to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Trump signed into law in July.
It’s a mobile billboard campaign, using a truck with large LED displays of a green-tinted Rep. Miller-Meeks with a Santa hat photoshopped onto her head. The 1st District congressmember’s image is accompanied by a cartoon winter landscape, and a label in a large Christmas-y font that declares she’s “The Congresswoman who Stole Health Care!”
“Mariannette Miller-Meeks is going full ‘grinch’ with cruel cuts to health care and her refusal to deliver lower costs for hardworking Iowans,” DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith said in the committee’s emailed statement.
Miller-Meeks isn’t the only Iowa politician with a brightly lit, green-tinted image on a mobile billboard this holiday session. There’s another DCCC-sponsored truck driving around Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District declaring Zach Nunn is “The Congressman who Stole Health Care!” The ad design is nearly identical.
Like the mobile billboard, the statement from Katie Smith in a Wednesday email announcing the campaign is identical to the Wednesday email about Miller-Meeks’ billboard, aside from the subject’s name and a pronoun.
“Zach Nunn is going full ‘grinch’ with cruel cuts to health care and his refusal to deliver lower costs for hardworking Iowans,” Smith said in the statement.
There is, however, a difference between Miller-Meeks and Nunn on the ACA subsidies. At least, there’s been a difference for the last few weeks.
Miller-Meeks has consistently opposed extending the subsidies, claiming they just “gloss over and hide … and obscure the fact that premiums are going up” by making health insurance more affordable. The congresswoman would prefer that people go without the assistance they’ve become accustomed to while Republicans work on addressing “the root causes” of healthcare affordability.
Nunn, on the other hand, signed on as a co-sponsor of a House bill that would extend the enhanced premium tax credit for two years. The bill, H.R. 6010, was introduced by Rep. Sam Licardo, a California Democrat, on Nov. 10. That same day, it was referred to both the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“Iowans deserve affordable health care coverage, but we can’t keep asking taxpayers to bankroll a broken system,” Nunn said in a statement to Des Moines Register. “This bill offers a commonsense bridge by protecting working Iowans from premium spikes while holding insurers accountable and cracking down on fraud. It’s the kind of bipartisan fix we need for short-term stability so that we can negotiate long-term reform.”
Nothing has happened to the bill since it was referred to the two committees on Nov. 10. It is opposed by Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of the House leadership. Nunn joined the 10 other Democrats and Republicans co-sponsoring the bill on Nov. 25. By that time, it was clear the bill stands almost no chance of getting a vote in either committee.
As Ty Rushing pointed out at Iowa Starting Line, “In the past, Nunn has been noncommittal on supporting the ACA, and changed his stance on the tax credits several times in November alone.”
“During a Nov. 12 interview on Newsmax in the thick of the federal government shutdown that began over Republicans’ refusal to extend these credits, Nunn agreed with Wake Up America host Marc Lotter, who wanted to let the credits expire.”
There’s another bill that would extend the enhanced premium tax credits before the House. HR 1834 was introduced by Massachusetts Democrat Rep. James McGovern in March. It would extend the tax credits for three years, compared to two years in the Nunn-approved bill.
Like the bill Nunn signed onto, HR 1834 was assigned to a committee that did not act on it. But on Wednesday, four Republicans joined all House Democrats in signing a discharge petition for the bill, forcing Speaker Johnson to schedule a floor vote. The vote will be in January. Nunn was not one of the four Republicans who signed the discharge petition.
Later on Wednesday, both Nunn and Miller-Meeks voted in favor of a Republican healthcare bill that does not include any extension of the tax credits. Miller-Meeks was a lead sponsor of the bill, which incorporated some of her ideas. The bill passed with only Republican support, 216-211. Iowa’s other two House Republicans, Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra, voted for the bill. It is not expected to pass the Senate.
Hinson and Feenstra don’t have Grinch-themed mobile billboards, because unlike Miller-Meeks and Nunn, neither of them is running for reelection to the House. Hinson is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Joni Ernst, and Feenstra is running for governor.
It’s possible that neither Miller-Meeks nor Nunn will see the mobile billboard with their image. It’s also possible that Miller-Meeks will see the one featuring Nunn that is driving around the 3rd District. That’s because even though Miller-Meeks represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, she lives in the 3rd.
