Josh DornerProgress Reports/ThinkProgress
June 28, 2011
Don’t Forget–The GOP United Behind Plan to End Medicare, Give More Tax Breaks to Big Oil, Billionaires
Late last Friday, Karl Rove’s attack group, Crossroads GPS, announced a $20 million attack ad campaign going after President Obama. Crossroads says the ads, initially showing on cable and in 10 states, are meant to “frame the national debate” on jobs and the economy. What they really want to do, of course, is re-frame the national debate away from the GOP’s disastrous and spectacularly unpopular plan to end Medicare in order to give more tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires, and Big Oil (three groups that just so happened to fund a related Rove attack group last year).
Here’s a reminder of what’s in the GOP plan and where the 2012 candidates stand on it. (Hint: they all support it.)
What’s Included in the GOP Plan:
- the end of Medicare as we know it
- a massive new tax cut for Big Oil and other huge corporations
- a massive, hidden tax increase on the middle class
- a massive tax cut for millionaires and billionaires
- huge cuts to government programs and services that millions of Americans rely on each day, including student loans, food safety, and unemployment benefits
All the 2012 Candidates Support the GOP Plan:
- Mitt Romney: Romney said he was “on the same page” as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), author of the GOP’s budget plan, before going all in on the plan to end Medicare and adding that he “appreciate[s] what Paul Ryan has done.”
- Michele Bachmann: In February 2010, Bachmann said the GOP’s 2012 nominee would need to be forthright with the American public about the need to “wean everybody off” Medicare and Social Security. Bachmann voted for the GOP’s plan to end Medicare, even though she later admitted she was concerned about the $6,000+ in additional annual health care costs that the plan would shift to seniors.
- Tim Pawlenty: Pawlenty refused for weeks to say whether or not he supported the details of the GOP plan, including the part that ends Medicare. The former Minnesota governor eventually said “of course” he would sign the plan to end Medicareif presented to him as president, noting separately that he also supports cuts to Social Security.
- Jon Huntsman: Huntsman’s support for the plan to end Medicare is crystal clear. He told Good Morning America: “I would’ve voted for it. Including the Medicare provisions.”
- Herman Cain: The former pizza mogul is a strong support of the plan to end Medicare, having said: “I absolutely support Paul Ryan’s plan. It is exactly the kind of bold restructuring that we need in order to get our hands around the entitlements issue.”
- Ron Paul: He voted against the GOP budget plan in the House — but only because it does not go far enough. The Texas congressman believes Medicare and Social Security are both unconstitutional and even compared them to slavery.
- Rick Santorum: He strongly supports the plan to end Medicare, but with one caveat: he wants the end of Medicare to come even sooner than in the GOP plan.
- Newt Gingrich: Gingrich’s presidential campaign imploded after he admitted on Meet the Press that the GOP’s plan to end Medicare is “radical right-wing social engineering.”After taking intense fire for days from his fellow Republicans, Gingrich eventually apologized to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and said he would have voted for the plan after all.
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed
The Ohio House today passed a potentially unconstitutional measure that would effectively outlaw abortions six or seven weeks into pregnancy. The so-called “heartbeat bill” is the most radically restrictive anti-abortion legislation in the nation.
The Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security held itsfirst hearing today on the DREAM Act, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napalitano among those testifying in support of the bill alongside DREAM activists and representatives from the Defense Department. The hearing was packed with students, many of whom were wearing trademark caps and gowns, supporting the bill that has been continually reintroduced since 2001. The bill came closest to passage last year during the lame duck session, but fell five votes short of overcoming a Senate filibuster.
Google estimates the cost of delaying clean energy innovation and smart energy policies for just five years could cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars.
A shocking new audit was leaked today by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General that found Boeing is overcharging the US Army by up to 177,000 percent on helicopter parts. All told, this has resulted in millions of dollars of overspending on the taxpayers dime.
After Michelle Bachmann’s latest gaffe, in which she falsely claimed John Quincy Adams was a founding father, people have tried to edit Adams’ Wikipedia page. Bachmann’s latest gaffe comes after her former chief of staff wrote an op-ed in the Des Moines Register, saying she does not have the “judgment, the demeanor, and the readiness to serve as president.”
Eighty-one corporations are lobbying Congress in an attempt to block a new requirement that companies disclose the ratio between their CEOs’ pay and the pay of their median worker.
The Roosevelt Institute’s Mike Konczal notes, “if you look at the 10 states in the U.S. that rely the most on private prisons, they incarcerate a percentage of their population in privately-owned facilities roughly equivalent to what Europe does in all their facilities.”
After taking a $10 billion bailout, Goldman Sachs is sending 10,000 jobs to Singapore. As ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes pointed out, “Goldman is firing American workers at a time of record profits for the company, which raked in $2.7 billion in profits in the first three months of 2011 alone.”
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