A recent newspaper advertisement stating Rep. Paul Ryan “voted to end Medicare” is patently false, the Republican congressman says.

The head of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which prepared the ad for the party’s Kenosha County organization, counters that he stands by the message.

Call it the latest in a war of the words between the left and right, fought through full-page advertisements designed to appear as editorial content.

The Democratic Party of Kenosha County paid for the anti-Ryan ad, published in Tuesday’s Kenosha News.

It came as a response to a Sept. 4 ad paid for by the U.S. Citizens Association, an Ohio-based advocacy group. That piece accused President Barack Obama and other Democrats of seeking “to bankrupt the nation with socialized medicine and socialist energy taxes.”

In Tuesday’s ad, the Democratic Party states Ryan and other Republicans “are trying to dismantle the Medicare programs that millions of seniors rely on.”

It also states Ryan joined 80 percent of House Republicans in an April vote “to end Medicare as we know it,” creating a voucher program requiring seniors to seek private insurance.

The vote the ad refers to was the GOP budget alternative the House voted down April 2, Ryan said in a Tuesday telephone interview.

Vote mischaracterized

As Ryan sees it, the Republicans’ plan would save the Medicare program for future generations, following the recommendations of a bipartisan commission organized by President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s.

The change would have only applied to those currently under 55, preserving the current program for older Americans, Ryan said.

“It works identical to the federal employee health benefit system,” Ryan said of the proposed voucher system. “That is the best way to save the program for future generations, because it will not be there for future generations unless you reform it.”

A September analysis by the nonpartisan factcheck.org, a project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, backed up Ryan’s claims, stating that a television version of the ad mischaracterized what Republicans voted for in April.

Ad defended

Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, countered this week that he believes Ryan’s vote would have effectively ended Medicare.

“I stand by this ad,” Tate said. “Paul Ryan has a casual relationship with the truth, and I think this is something where he votes one way in Washington — which is hard right, very extreme — and then he tries to come back to the 1st District and talk like he’s a moderate.”

County Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Erb said her organization sponsored the ad, in part, to expose Ryan’s tendency to vote along GOP lines. Erb said the party took up a collection among its members to pay for the newspaper space.

Does it work?

Does this full-page advocacy, disguised as “news,” resonate with average voters?

Jerald Mast, assistant professor of political science at Carthage College, does not believe so.

While television ads may reach an audience whose opinions are less well-formed, Mast said he believes newspaper readers are a largely older, better-educated lot who are more likely to have their minds set on what they think about health-care reform and how they view Ryan’s efforts.

“I think people see it for what it is,” Mast said. “It’s political gamesmanship.”