Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) appears in an ad for the Mitt Romney campaign released Thursday, making the case that changes to Medicare are necessary in order to protect the country's seniors.
“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan get it. Medicare is going broke,” Rubio says in the ad. “That’s not politics. It’s math. Anyone who wants to leave Medicare like it is, is for letting it go bankrupt. My mother’s 81 and depends on Medicare.”
“We can save Medicare without changing hers," he continues. "But only if younger Americans accept that our Medicare will be different than our parents,' when we retire in 30 years. But after all they did for us, isn’t that the least we can do?”
Although he was not chosen as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Rubio has been one of Romney's strongest surrogates. He participated in a conference call Wednesday with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus to discuss the party's renewed focus on branding this a "choice election" -- something President Barack Obama's campaign has done from the very beginning of the cycle.
The new ad tees up one major aspect of that choice, without explicitly attacking Obama or his policies.
Since Romney appointed Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to the ticket, Medicare has taken center stage, largely due to Ryan's controversial budget plan that would overhaul the program. Democrats have spent over a month slamming Ryan for proposing to turn Medicare into a voucher system, which they argue would "end Medicare as we know it."
The ad implies that the campaign still feels vulnerable against those attacks, which have also played a big role in races at the congressional level.
The Romney campaign did not release information on where the spot will air or how much money is behind the ad buy.
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