Evans Liberal Politics, September 23, 2010, compiled and with commentary by Paul Evans:

“Pledge to America”: The New Republican Agenda

“Pledge to America”: The New Republican Agenda, CBS News, Political Hotsheet, September 22, 2010, by Jill Jackson, quoted verbatim:

House Republicans, led by John Boehner, plan to unveil their “Pledge to America” (today, Thursday) at a hardware store in Sterling, Virginia. An advanced copy obtained by CBS News reveals few surprises, but gives voters a basic idea of what Republicans will do if they take over the House next year. It is also a clear pledge to the Tea Party with its focus on Constitutional principles and government spending. “With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people” the members say in the opening. “This is our Pledge to America.”

Pledge to America: Full Text

The GOP plan is to stop the Bush tax cuts from expiring for all Americans, not just the middle class as many Democrats would like. Republicans would allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income. And they would repeal and replace health care with “common-sense solutions focused on lowering costs and protecting American jobs.”

The Pledge also promises to reform the way Congress works by requiring each bill to have Constitutional citations and by giving members at least three days to read legislation before it comes to the floor for a vote.

On defense, they promise to fully fund the troops, missile defense and to enforce sanctions in Iran.

Critical Contests: Interactive Map with CBS News 2010 Election Race Ratings

House Democrats were already busy Wednesday afternoon working up a fact sheet to pan the Republican pledge. In a draft version of the fact sheet, Democrats question the GOP’s small business credibility given that Republicans are expected to return from the event to DC tomorrow to vote against a small business lending fund with tax breaks.

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“Ironically, the party that’s voted against small business tax cuts enacted into law by this Congress is actually holding their press event at a small business just outside Washington–and then racing back presumably to vote against the Small Business Jobs Act–crucial to get small businesses hiring and $300 billion in private sector credit flowing,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Democrats’ draft also says that the GOP plan will “blow a $700 billion hole in the deficit to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires” and “take away patients’ rights” by repealing the health care bill.

The Republican plan would take spending back to 2008 pre-TARP and stimulus spending levels and would put in place strict budget caps. But it’s unclear how much money would actually be saved given the funding promises in the GOP pledge on extending and adding tax cuts, repealing but replacing health care, and increasing defense spending.

Jill Jackson is a CBS News senior political producer. You can read more of her posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Articles in the News about the “Pledge to America:”

See GOP’s New ‘Pledge to America’: A Pathetic, Destructive Sham, AlterNet, September 23, 2010, by Steve Benen.

UPDATE: See Downhill With the G.O.P., The New York Times, Conscience of a Liberal, September 23, 2010, by Paul Krugman (on the Pledge to America), excerpt quoted verbatim:

Once upon a time, a Latin American political party promised to help motorists save money on gasoline. How? By building highways that ran only downhill.

I’ve always liked that story, but the truth is that the party received hardly any votes. And that means that the joke is really on us. For these days one of America’s two great political parties routinely makes equally nonsensical promises. Never mind the war on terror, the party’s main concern seems to be the war on arithmetic. And this party has a better than even chance of retaking at least one house of Congress this November.

Banana republic, here we come.

See The GOP’s bad idea, The Washington Post, Opinion, September 23, 2010, by Ezra Klein.

See House Republicans Draft Campaign Manifesto, Reuters on The New York Times, September 23, 2010, by Reuters.

Watch Republicans Pledge to Take On Obama, CBS News video on YouTube, September 23, 2010 — 4:13.

See GOP leaders pledge to cut government, taxes, CNN Politics, September 23, 2010, by CNN Wire Staff, with video of Boehner unveiling the “Pledge to America.”

Recommended: Republicans Offer Their Agenda for Midterm Election, The New York Times, September 23, 2010, by Michael D. Shear and David M. Herszenhorn.

Popular from yesterday: Republican ‘Pledge To America’ Centers On Spending Freeze, Tax Cuts, The Huffington Post, September 22, 2010, by Julie Hirschfeld Davis.

In Related Political Campaign News:

G.O.P. Cites Tax Cuts and Health Care as Main Focus, The New York Times, September 23, 2010, by David M. Herszenhorn: photo is © AP and is from Politico, more on the Pledge to America.

With control of the House, the Republicans said they would seek to immediately cancel any unspent money from last year’s $787 billion economic stimulus program, to freeze the size of the “nonsecurity” federal work force, and to quickly cut $100 billion in discretionary spending. But the blueprint, with echoes of the 1994 Contract With America, does not specify how the spending reductions would be carried out.

Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: Of course, this HAS been going on since 1994, in fact, since before Reagan took office in 1980. The Republicans have no new ideas. Just cut taxes (for everyone, so long as the rich fat cats get theirs), slash social programs (discretionary spending), push defense and security spending, and limit the size of government. Same old, same old. Voters, do you really want to go back to the Bush years? Do you want to see a Congress attempting to enact budgets and blueprints with the stamp of Newt Gingrich on them? It’s your choice!

Not all conservatives are in love with the Pledge to America:

See RedState’s Erick Erickson Eviscerates GOP’s “Pledge To America”, Daily Kos, September 22, 2010, by StuHunter:

Tonight, CNN contributor Erick Erickson of RedState, The Republican’s answer to the Daily Kos and its founder Markos Moulitsas just tore apart and ripped into shreds the House GOP’s new plan to be unveiled tomorrow… “Pledge To America.” This is the GOP’s pathetic attempt to recapture Newt Gingrich’s 1994 “Contract With America” which failed miserably and has been aptly renamed “Contract On America.”

See Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Thing to Come Out of Washington Since George McClellan, Red State, September 22, 2010, by Erick Erickson: Erickson gives the Pledge an A+ on rhetoric and a C- on ideas, so it’s not like he absolutely hates it.

See ‘Pledge’ promises fight, gridlock, Politico, September 23, 2010, by Richard E. Cohen, Jake Sherman and Jonathan Allen.

The Ongoing Political Battle:

Health Care Shaping Up as a Central Front in Campaign 2010
(But Is It an Issue Democrats Want to Campaign on?)

See In Effort to Reconnect, Obama Heads Into Backyard, The New York Times, September 22, 2010, by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, photo © The New York Times, excerpt quoted verbatim:

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — President Obama is trying to reconnect with the American people, and he is using that most American of settings, the backyard, to do it.

Mr. Obama emerged from the back door of Paul and Frances Brayshaw’s tidy white brick house here on Wednesday and trotted down some steps onto their patio under a bright noonday sun with a hearty “Hey, everybody! Hello, hello, hello! Good to see you.” About two dozen guests awaited him in lawn chairs for what was supposed to be a casual conversation on health care and, more broadly, the American economy.

It was Mr. Obama’s third such “backyard conversation” in recent weeks, and there are more in store. Another three backyard drop-ins are planned for next week, when Mr. Obama travels to New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa, and there will be more throughout the campaign season — part of what his aides describe as a concerted push to get him out of the White House to mingle with everyday Americans and hear their concerns.

Commentary by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: Since Republicans have made repeal of health care reform a top priority on their campaign agenda, the Obama administration has been attempting to counterattack by connecting with voters and educating them about the benefits of the new health care law. In my opinion, I’m not sure how wise this is and I hope the White House knows what it’s doing here. Last time I checked public opinion it was running rather strongly against the health care reform bill, six months after passage. Rasmussen, which can be counted on the add 5 to 10 points to the right wing positions in their polling (IMHO), has 61 percent of Americans in favor of repealing the health care law. Even Gallop has Americans disapproving of the health care reform law, with 39 percent approving and 56 percent disapproval (September 13, 2010 results). Even accounting for a polling bias by Rasmussen, as the normally unbiased Gallop results show, this sort of public disapproval makes health care reform a difficult thing for Democrats to campaign on. It’s been six months (today) since health care reform passed, and even with benefits of the law just now starting to kick in, at this point Americans have pretty much made up their minds – against the health care reform bill.

Still don’t know what’s in the health care reform bill which passed six months ago? The Kaiser Family Foundation has an excellent Summary of New Health Reform Law and a good Health Reform Implementation Timeline (PDF’s).

By the way, the Pew Research Center is reporting (to liberals) disappointing polling numbers on the public’s position on entitlements in general. This is an issue liberals had hoped would favor Democrats, but that’s not what the polling numbers are saying: According to Pew, “58% favor a proposal that would allow workers under age 55 to invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts that would rise and fall with the markets,” while only 28 percent of Americans are against any privatization of Social Security. People, how can you be so dumb?

See For Many, Health Care Relief Begins Today, The New York Times, September 22, 2010, by Kevin Sack, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Sometimes lost in the partisan clamor about the new health care law is the profound relief it is expected to bring to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been stricken first by disease and then by a Darwinian insurance system.

On Thursday, the six-month anniversary of the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PDF), a number of its most central consumer protections take effect, just in time for the midterm elections.

Starting now, insurance companies will no longer be permitted to exclude children because of pre-existing health conditions, which the White House said could enable 72,000 uninsured to gain coverage. Insurers also will be prohibited from imposing lifetime limits on benefits.

The law will now forbid insurers to drop sick and costly customers after discovering technical mistakes on applications. It requires that they offer coverage to children under 26 on their parents’ policies.

It establishes a menu of preventive procedures, like colonoscopies, mammograms and immunizations, that must be covered without co-payments. And it allows consumers who join a new plan to keep their own doctors and to appeal insurance company reimbursement decisions to a third party.

Some of the Republican Madness:

Think the Republicans are being anything like fair about the issues?

See Republicans Balk at Obama Business Tax Breaks They’ve Backed, Business Week, September 21, 2010, by Catherine Dodge: “Business tax breaks for R&D and capital investments are two proposals Republicans backed in the past, but don’t like as part of Obama’s plan to spur growth.” PROOF that so long as the Repugs can use the economy as an issue to campaign on, they will NOT be for any measures which might improve the economy. Period.

Lies and more lies: See PolitiFact’s The Truth-O-Meter report card on Michele Bachmann, PolitiFact, September 21, 2010, by Lois Jackson: here is a good quote from the article about earlier reports here on Bachman: she “had never earned anything higher than a False” on the “Truth-O-Meter.” You were expecting?

And it’s getting ugly out there. See Ill. man arrested, accused of threatening Obama, AP News hosted on Google, September 22, 2010, by AP, about a man arrested claiming he had an explosive device after threatening the President.

For fun, watch Witless: The True Story of Christine O’Donnell & the Tea Party Women, YouTube video — 1:09.

IMPORTANT: Bill Clinton offers formula for Barack Obama success, Politico, September 23, 2010, by John F. Harris and James Hohman, excerpt quoted verbatim:

NEW YORK —- Bill Clinton said Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats have not been “vigorous enough” in pushing back against Republican distortions, warning that to prevent a midterm debacle, his party must urgently rally around a national message designed to halt the flight of independent voters into the arms of the GOP.

In a POLITICO interview Wednesday, the former president said Democrats must find a better way to frame their case to fiscally conservative swing voters, who abandoned the GOP in 2006 and 2008 but this year have not heard a sustained rebuttal to the Republican argument that President Obama stands for growing deficits and European-style big government.

See Senate Forecast: Republican Takeover Chances Improved, but Democrats Are Building Pacific Firewall, FiveThirtyEight on The New York Times, September 22, 2010, by Nate Silver.

Commentary by Paul Evans: We’ve seen that campaigning on health care or even entitlements is a labor fraught with danger for the Democratic Party. Here’s one idea that might be a little more fruitful. See Obama Aides Weigh Bid to Tie the G.O.P. to the Tea Party, The New York Times, September 19, 2010, by Jackie Calmes and Michael D. Shear. That sounds like an idea: make the whole campaign about the Tea Party, (correctly) tie the whole G.O.P to the Tea Party, and then bore in on their whacky far right Tea Party positions. I wouldn’t so much try to refute Republican ideas a la Bill Clinton’s ideas, above…. I’d smear the bloody cr*p out of them about their Tea Party identity. We’ve seen in 2000 and 2004 that swift boating and smear attacks work all too well with the American voter. Well, I’d swift boat the GOP about their Tea Party identity and allegiances. Sounds a whole lot more promising than trying to campaign on issues which, by and large, the public has weighted in the balance and found wanting. DNC, are you listening?

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