Republican House Leader Boehner Teases ‘Contract With America’ Part Two
August 24th, 2010
In “major economic address,” Republican House Leader Boehner Teases ‘Contract With America’ Part Two, Promises to Pick Up Where Bush Left Off
Americans United for Change Offers Boehner Help With The Final Draft
Washington DC– In what was billed as a “major economic address” in Cleveland, Ohio today, House Minority Leader John Boehner laid out Congressional Republicans’ agenda for the future which sounded remarkably similar to the exact same agenda pursued for 8 years under President George W. Bush: more risky and irresponsible deregulation of Corporate America, more deficit-dynamiting tax cuts for the rich and hope that – this time around – it solves all the nation’s economic woes. As part of his lobbyist-fueled campaign to become the next House Speaker, Boehner’s speech teased his much anticipated redux of the Contract with America that Republicans famously campaigned on in 1994.
According to the National Journal: “Boehner [promised] a real economic agenda from the GOP, which has been criticized for failing to lay out a governing plan. America Speaking Out, a group launched in May and run out of Boehner's office, will produce this year's version of a Contract with America after months of what Boehner and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who heads the effort, have called a listening tour.”
Today, Americans United for Change, the group behind the national Bush Legacy Tour, offered to lend the Minority Leader a hand with the final draft:
REPUBLICAN CONTRACT WITH AMERICA
As Republican Members of the House of Representatives and as citizens seeking to join that body we propose not just to change its policies, but even more important, to fully restore the same failed policies that we helped enable under President George W. Bush – a golden era of conservative governance that saw a tragically inept response to Hurricane Katrina, a needless and badly mismanaged war in Iraq, the handing over of the country’s energy and environmental policies to the big oil and gas companies, two vetoes of a basic expansion of the children’s health care program, tax cuts for the extremely rich that saw the income gap between working Americans and the wealthiest few widen like never before, skyrocketing health care costs bankrupt more Americans than ever before, and, of course, the complete and utter disregard for the rampant, reckless behavior on Wall Street that led to the worst economic and financial disaster since the Great Depression, costing millions of Americans their jobs, retirement and health care.
That is why - in this new Obama era of responsible governance, accountability, and economic recovery - we offer instead a detailed agenda for sustained national economic and financial insecurity, a written commitment with lots and lots of fine print.
This year's election offers the chance - after but one year of Democratic control that reduced taxes for 95 percent of American families, preserved or produced up to 3.6 million jobs, and averted a second Great Depression - to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works: by threatening to shut it down altogether every time the bottom line of our largest donors in the oil, insurance, banking industry are threatened in any way. That historic change would be the end of government that is too concerned about the welfare of average working Americans and not enough on Corporate welfare.
Like George W. Bush, our proudest Republican president, we intend to make things right again for “the haves and the have-mores” by pursuing his “exact same agenda.”
On the first day of the 112th Congress, the Republican minority will immediately propose the following major reforms,
FIRST AND FOREMOST, provide massive subsidies and expand offshore tax havens for Corporate America and extend the deficit-exploding Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and pray that – this time – it solves every single economic problem the nation faces.
SECOND, repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and eradicate all its new reforms, ESPECIALLY the Barring insurance companies from discriminating based on pre-existing conditions and gender, the Prohibiting insurance companies from rescinding coverage when people get sick, the Ending of lifetime and annual caps on coverage, the Extension of parents’ coverage to young adults until age 26 and, the Filling of the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap known as the ‘donut hole’ for our nation’s seniors.
THIRD, repeal the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and encourage Wall Street bankers to go back and engage in all the same risky and reckless behavior with other peoples’ money that collapsed the financial system.
FOURTH, immediately instate a moratorium on all new federal regulations and usher in new era of deregulation that invites Wall Street banks, Big Oil, Big Insurance, Big Ag to cut corners that sacrifice consumer protection in order to maximize profits.
FIFTH, immediately pass the budget proposal authored by US. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin that would raise taxes on the middle-class, eliminate the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, dismantle Social Security with a risky privatization scheme and replace Medicare with a voucher program not worth the paper it’s printed on.
SIXTH, pick a social wedge issue and run with it for the next two years.
SEVENTH, chisel the face of George W. Bush into Mount Rushmore.