It is too easy to listen to all the negative garbage on the television and radio each day and do nothing, perhaps, other than change the channel.
The very scary thing is so much of the garbage recently about what Republicans would do if they are back in power in Washington…is TRUE.
There are consequences now and they are HUGE. Your VOTE is just as, if not more important, than that choice you made in 2008.
I would ask you, even if I don’t know you, to read this information and realize what is at stake in 45 very quick days.Democratic candidates across the country are running strong campaigns focused on their solid records making progress for the American people and drawing sharp distinctions between themselves and their opponents on the key issues at stake in this election.
With Election Day around the corner, we need you to reach out to your friends and family and make sure they know about the choice in this election between Democratic policies that will accelerate job growth and those that would kill the fragile recovery.
House Republican candidates, whose views are far out of the mainstream of swing districts, will have to answer for their plans to:
PRIVATIZE MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY
FACT: Boehner-Ryan Plan Would Privatize Social Security and Dismantle Medicare. Under the Republican “Roadmap for America’s Future” that Boehner praises, “Medicare is privatized. Seniors get a voucher to buy private insurance, and the voucher’s growth is far slower than the expected growth of health-care costs. Medicaid is also privatized… And beyond health care, Social Security gets guaranteed, private accounts that CBO says will actually cost more than the present arrangement” [Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, 2/1/10]
FACT: Boehner-Ryan Plan Cuts Medicare by 76%, Forces Seniors to Buy Coverage From Private Insurance. Under the Republican plan for Medicare, “By 2080, Medicare would be cut 76 percent below its projected size under current policies, according to CBO. In other words, by 2080, the vouchers that would replace Medicare would receive one-quarter of the resources that Medicare would otherwise use.” [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/7/10]
FACT: Boehner Consistently Supports Social Security Privatization and Voted to Dismantle Medicare Into Vouchers. Boehner has been a longtime supporter of privatizing Social Security. He even said in 2006 about privatization, “If I’m around in a leadership role come January, we’re going to get serious about it.” [Washington Times, 7/31/06; US Federal News, Boehner Answers Community’s Questions, 4/29/05; Letter to The Social Security Reform Commission, 5/24/01]
In 2009, Boehner led 137 House Republicans who voted for a plan “that would eventually end the Medicare program as it is presently known,” according to the Associated Press. The Republican plan would dismantle Medicare, turning it into a voucher program and forcing seniors to buy insurance on their own from private insurance companies. [Roll Call Vote #191, 4/2/09; Associated Press, 4/2/09]
EXTEND TAX BREAKS FOR COMPANIES THAT
SHIP AMERICAN JOBS OVERSEAS
FACT: Boehner Has Led The Fight to Protect Tax Breaks for Companies Who Ship American Jobs Overseas. Boehner led near unanimous Republican opposition to legislation that paid for protecting the jobs of police, firefighters, and teachers through closing tax loopholes that encourage companies to move American jobs overseas. [HR 1586, #518, 8/10/10]
FACT: Boehner and Republicans Opposed Legislation to End Tax Breaks for Companies Who Ship American Jobs Overseas. In May, Republicans opposed The American Jobs, Closing Tax Loopholes and Preventing Outsourcing Act, legislation that would prevent corporations from using current U.S. foreign tax credit rules to subsidize their foreign activities. [HR 4213, #324, 5/28/10].
FACT: Boehner and Republicans Opposed Small Business Relief Paid For By Closing Outsourcing Tax Breaks. In July, Republicans opposed legislation that would have reduced paperwork and reporting requirements for small businesses and been paid for by ending tax breaks that encourage companies to move American jobs overseas. [HR 5982, #514, 7/30/10; The Hill, 7/30/10]
REPEAL THE LAW TO REIN IN
RECKLESS SPECULATION ON WALL STREET
FACT: Boehner and Republicans Opposed Wall Street Reform. Boehner even said it was “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.” In an interview published in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Republican Leader John Boehner criticized the financial regulatory overhaul compromise as an ‘overreaction’ to the financial crisis that triggered the recession. Boehner said of Wall Street reform, “This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.” [Pittsburgh Tribune Review; 06/29/10]
House Republicans met in December with 100 banking and special interest lobbyists in an effort to kill Wall Street reform legislation. [Roll Call, 12/8/09]
The Conference Report accompanying HR 4173, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provides a new regulatory structure for the financial markets with the goal of mitigating risky practices on Wall Street that put the entire U.S. economy at risk [HR 4173, #413, 6/30/10].
The Conference Agreement:
Expands the government’s ability to deal with failing financial institutions;
Creates a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau within the Federal Reserve;
Includes a provision, called the “Volcker Rule,” that limits proprietary trading by banks;
Provides federal regulation of the derivatives market for the first time;
Places limits on the interchange fees that banks charge merchants for debit-card transactions;
Provides shareholders with a non-binding vote on executive compensation; and
Sets new risk-based capital standards for banks.
House Republicans voted unanimously against the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act – legislation the House passed to reform Wall Street, reform executive pay, end bailouts and unwind so-called ‘too big to fail’ firms, and hold the big banks and financial firms accountable to American taxpayers…[HR 4173, #968, 12/11/09].
On March 19, 2009, 87 House Republicans Voted Against Taxing Bonuses Paid to AIG Executives and other Companies Receiving Federal Assistance (2009). [H R 1586, #143, 3/19/09].
GO BACK TO “EXACT SAME AGENDA” OF FAILED BUSH POLICIES
FACT: On Meet the Press, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions and National Republican Senatorial Committee John Cornyn consistently defended Bush policies and promised to return to them if Republicans won the House. When asked to name a difference between what Republicans would do in the future and what President George W. Bush did, Representative Pete Sessions said:
“We need to go back to the exact same agenda that is empowering the free enterprise system rather than diminishing it.” [Meet the Press, 7/18/10]
Under Bush policies, private sector jobs lost. Over his eight year presidency, the Bush Administration lost 663,000 private sector jobs. In the last year alone, the Bush Administration lost 4,516,000 private sector jobs. [BLS]
Under Bush policies, government spending and deficits skyrocketed. According to a report from the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, “The events and policies that have pushed deficits to these high levels in the near term, however, were largely outside the new Administration’s control. If not for the tax cuts enacted during the presidency of George W. Bush that Congress did not pay for, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that were initiated during that period, and the effects of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression (including the cost of steps necessary to combat it), we would not be facing these huge deficits in the near term.” [CBPP, 6/28/10]
Under Bush policies, families work harder and their wages continue to decline. Middle-class families are working harder and earning less at the end of the Bush Administration than they were at the start of the Bush Administration. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, has declined $333 from $50,566 in 2000 to $50,233 in 2007. [U.S. Census Bureau, Income 2000, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007 (August 2008), Figure 1 (in 2007 dollars)]
Under Bush policies, employment compensation has lagged behind productivity gains. While the productivity of the American worker (output per hour) rose by 20.7 percent between the fourth quarter of 2000 and the second quarter of 2008, average hourly compensation (wages plus benefits, adjusted for inflation) increased by only 7.7 percent during this period. [Peter Goodman, Workers Get Fewer Hours, Deepening the Downturn, New York Times (April 18, 2008).]
Yes, there are choices and we cannot just sit this election, nor allow any family member or friend or church member, and on and on and on. Leave nobody you know and care about out. Too much is at stake.
Thanks for “listening” to my rant!
