Republicans claim Senate Democrats cut Medicare to fund EV subsidies. It isn’t true.

Republicans are claiming Democratic senators voted to cut Medicare to pay for electric vehicle tax credits. These attacks are based on false and misleading claims about the Inflation Reduction Act.

The attacks have been made in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Montana. All of these states have marquee Senate races this year that could determine which party controls congress.

The Inflation Reduction Act passed the House and Senate in 2022 with zero Republican votes. The bill has three main goals: lower the federal deficit, advance clean energy production, and cut prescription drug costs. A major provision of the bill empowered Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs for Medicare recipients.

In Wisconsin, a television ad claims that incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin voted to “use Medicare money for electric vehicle subsidies instead of seniors.” The ad is being run by Restoration PAC, a far-right group founded by conservative billionaire Richard Uihlein.

The ad misrepresents how the green energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act  are paid for. By allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs, the government is spending less money on health care administration, freeing up funds for the tax credits. Funding also comes from new taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, like Uihlein.

Fact checkers at CNN, Washington Post, FactCheck.org, and AARP all confirmed that the Inflation Reduction Act made no cuts to Medicare or Social Security.

In Ohio, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno made the same claim about his opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Moreno made the statement in an Aug. 9 interview with Fox News.

“They have absolutely gutted Medicare to pay for these EV mandates,” Moreno said. “They want solar panels on prime farmland. They are completely out of step with Midwest values. And again, Sherrod Brown can run and try to hide from it, but the reality is, Ohio knows that he is absolutely not in sync with what our voters want.”

In the same interview, Moreno claimed Brown voted to give Social Security and Medicare to undocumented immigrants. This is also false. Federal law explicitly prohibits undocumented individuals from accessing Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, or Affordable Care Act benefits.

A Moreno spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The debunked claim about electric vehicles also appears in an ad for Montana’s U.S. Senate race. The ad is being run by Republican candidate Tim Sheehy in coordination with the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A voiceover states that incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester supported “spending Medicare on electric vehicles instead of helping seniors.”

In addition to being false, the claim is also undercut by Sheehy’s stated willingness to cut Medicare. In August 2023, Semafor reported that during a campaign event Sheehy called for returning “healthcare to pure privatization.” Total privatization of the health care system would mean the elimination of Medicare and Medicaid. 

Sheehy has also been endorsed by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative dark money group that supports cutting Social Security.

According to the White House, 3.4 million Americans have directly benefited from the green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act. Millions of seniors, people with disabilities, and other Medicare beneficiaries are expected to benefit from the prescription costs provisions in the bill.