Senators Coburn, Barrasso, Burr, McCain and Thune sent the following letter to Secretary Sebelius today expressing their concern regarding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) television ad campaign touting the benefits of the new health care law for senior.

To read the letter to Secretary Sebelius, click here.

Excerpts:

"We request that you cease the ad campaign immediately and reimburse the U.S. Treasury for any expenditure of taxpayer funds related to this effort. We also request you provide documentation outlining which HHS account these funds came from.

"We believe this ad is a clear violation of the spirit of federal laws that prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes … We can debate the relative merits of the new law, but co-opting public funds during a recession, to make a political, poll-tested argument about the new law, is wrong.

The job of the Executive Branch, quite simply, is to execute and implement the law, not re-litigate a political debate. Using the power of the state and the Treasury to advance the agenda of one political party is an abuse that should not be tolerated, regardless of which party is in power."