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BREAKING NEWS | |
GOP UNVEILS NEW “PLEDGE” TO AMERICA
September 24, 2010
(NATIONAL) -- Hoping for big wins in the election on Nov. 2, House Republicans Thursday promised to roll back everything Democrats have done in the past two years, debuting a glossy 21-page “Pledge to America” that is long on rhetoric couched in patriotic slogans yet short on details.
At a hardware store in suburban Washington, senior House Republicans in shirt sleeves showed off the 21-page document they claim will guide them should they gain a majority of seats in the midterm elections.
While the document is short on details of exactly how they will cut down the government, MSNBC reported that some of the lawmakers backing the pledge have gone on record as favoring the privatization of social security, essentially allowing Wall Street access to billions of taxpayer retirement dollars that Wall Street firms cannot now touch as well as favoring privatization of the VA medical care that U.S. soldiers now receive, giving them “vouchers" in place of the medical care they now receive at VA hospitals.
Gary Bass, founder and director of OMB Watch says that while not every proposal in the Pledge is a bad one, “Beyond the ultra-negative, unconstructive spin that opens the document, the Pledge contains what may be serious policy items buried within the bullet points. These include budget-busting tax cuts, spending cuts that would further shortchange Americans most in need, and a proposal that attempts to slow down and possibly stop public protections,” said Bass in a new analysis piece on the Pledge
He notes that in the Pledge, Republicans propose to make the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent and add other tax breaks, “a move that would cost the federal treasury trillions of dollars and would cause the national debt to balloon to unprecedented levels. To call this tax proposal fiscally unsound would be an understatement,” added Bass.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California disagrees and sees the Pledge as a rescue of America: “We will take back our country. We will restore a better future. This is our pledge to you."
Some see the new Pledge as reminiscent of 1994 when congressional Republicans unveiled what they called the "Contract with America".
The Contract was chock-full of policy proposals and details intended to shrink the size of government. In contrast the Pledge is described as a set of bullet points with little detail.
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