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From: Evaggelos Geraniotis <evangeran@yahoo.com>
Subject: [discussion] GOP' Plan for the Economy: More of the Same Failed Policies
Date: August 26th 2010

F
 Friends

Here we attach a Response by Tim Kaine, Chairman of the Democratic Party
on the comments made by John Boehner (R-OH) House Minority Leader on Tue 8/24 in Cleveland, it is followed by a more detailed commentary provided by OFA. 

Boehner' s comments in Cleveland were supposed to provide insight into GOP's new vision for America's economic future, instead he regurgitated the same failed policies of the Bush years: tax cuts for the wealthy, loopholes for the corporations, deregulation for Wall St, Big Oil and Gas, Mining and several other major industrial sectors.  In other words the exact same policies that led us to the 2008 Financial System Meltdown, the BP disaster in the Gulf and the mining accidents in West Virginia, as well as the shipping of jobs overseas and the stagnation of the middle class.  On the other hand he has supported privatization of Social Security,  extension of retirement age to 70 and a vouchers system to replace Medicare.  There is much more to be said here; we will follow tomorrow with an essay on the deterioration of the middle class caused by the GOP policies of the last 8 years.

It seems that GOP has learned nothing from its mistakes; however,  Boehner insists that they are the grown ups in this country !   And yet once more  a Democratic President has to clean up the mess that his Republican predecessor left behind.  As it happened with Clinton after G.H. Bush.  Why should the American people give the car keys back to those who drove the car into the ditch ?

Evan Geraniotis

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From: Tim Kaine, Chairman of the Democratic Party

Response to John Beohner's Comments

Yesterday (Tue 8/24)  Republican John Boehner escalated his campaign to become the next Speaker of the House. He gave a "major speech" in Cleveland -- much-hyped by his staffers, who told reporters that this, finally, was the moment when the GOP would introduce its economic agenda.

After all the build-up, all we heard was another list of what Republicans are against.

Every supposedly new idea was more of the same. He wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich. He wants to repeal health insurance reform. He opposes clean-energy legislation.

Nothing he offered would move America forward.

The only thing Boehner seems serious about is raising campaign cash. After the speech, he told reporters that he's prepared to help Republicans spend $50 million to win back Congress.

We can already guess what he'll do: tap the special interests. He'll work the phones and call in every favor. He'll lean on the big-dollar donors and the corporate lobbyists.

On Tuesday, Boehner said his party deserves to win because it's time to "put the grown-ups in charge." What a bunch of nonsense.

The last time he and Republicans were in charge, they took a $237 billion budget surplus and transformed it into a $1.3 trillion deficit. They doubled the national debt and drove the economy into a ditch.

Under Boehner, this country would go right back to the failed Republican policies that cost us 8 million jobs, left the middle class in economic peril, and shifted our tax burden to the middle class by giving $100,000 tax breaks to the wealthy.

To make sure that doesn't happen, we're planning to outwork the GOP in every district with a competitive race. We will knock on doors, make calls, and build the case for Democrats across the country.

But we're talking about the most aggressive voter turnout campaign for a midterm election in history. We need your help to get it done.

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The GOP Plan: More of the Same Failed Economic Policies  (from OFA)

On Tuesday (8/24), House Minority Leader John Boehner delivered a speech outlining Congressional Republicans’ economic goals. Unfortunately, their vision for the future is a return to the same failed Republican economic policies that helped to create the worst recession since the Great Depression. Republican leaders want to enact more tax breaks for the wealthy; they support less oversight of Wall Street banks; and they would place a heavier burden on hard-working middle-class Americans.

Under the leadership of President Obama and Congressional Democrats, America is finally getting out of the enormous hole that Republicans helped to dig our country into.

o After 22 consecutive months of job losses, private sector employers have now added jobs for seven months in a row.

o This Administration is reducing government spending and cutting the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

o This Administration is investing in America’s future by laying a stronger economic foundation and supporting better education for our children.

o This Administration is cutting taxes and helping America’s small businesses to access needed capital.

o This Administration is ending special interests’ hold over Washington.

John Boehner’s math simply doesn’t add up when it comes to tax cuts for American families. In these difficult economic times, middle class Americans simply can’t afford higher taxes. That’s why President Obama has called for the extension of tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans. But Republicans want to spend an additional $700 billion to give millionaires a $100,000-a-year tax cut.

Republicans’ tax cut for millionaires won’t benefit Main Street businesses. The vast majority of small businesses – more than 97 percent of them – would not qualify for the millionaire tax cuts advocated by Minority Leader Boehner. He is quite simply advocating a Wall Street tax cut, not a Main Street tax cut. And few mainstream economists believe that such cuts will promote economic growth or recovery – because the people who would benefit already have a great deal of money to spend.

If Republicans are serious about promoting economic recovery, they should stop obstructing the small business tax cuts that they’ve been holding up for months in Congress. President Obama has outlined a series of proposals that would make it easier for small businesses to get off the ground, expand, and take on new workers. He has cut small business taxes eight times and supported access to capital that will help small businesses to grow and thrive. But there’s still more to be done. Republicans should stop blocking new small business tax breaks and lending incentives that can spur small business hiring.

Minority Leader Boehner is willfully ignoring the Republican Party’s record – and he’s hoping American voters will do the same. During the eight years before President Obama took office, Republican leaders took a record surplus and turned it into a record $1.3 trillion deficit. Their irresponsible economic policies set the stage for the worst economic recession since the Great Depression – a recession that resulted in 22 consecutive months of job losses.

Minority Leader Boehner and other Congressional Republicans aren’t offering anything new. If Republicans were in control of Congress, they have said they would go back to “the exact same agenda” they were advocating before President Obama took office. They still believe the policies they enacted during the Bush Administration were the right policies – despite the fact that millions of Americans saw their paychecks shrink or lost their jobs, houses, and savings as a result of those policies. Americans don’t want to go back to the failed policies of the past. They want to go forward.