GOP decides ‘It’s the economy’ for 2010

WASHINGTON - Republican leaders in Congress plan to zero in on the nation’s economy, weighed down by an unemployment rate approaching 10 percent, as key to building momentum for the 2010 elections. Democrats, who say they and President Obama inherited an economy driven off the rails by President George W. Bush and a GOP Congress, have a simple response: Bring it on. Harkening back to the Democrats’ 1992 campaign adage — “it’s the economy, stupid” — Republicans are seeking to build on public anxiety and drape the weak economy around the necks of President Obama and the Democratic Congress if they hope to make gains in the 2010 congressional elections. Their daily, relentless message leaves little doubt that this is exactly what they intend to do as they hammer at the president’s $787 billion stimulus package (PL 111-5) and the growing national debt. The GOP also are tying the Democrats’ key legislative initiatives on global warming and energy and health care to the economy, charging that legislation pushed by Obama and his Democratic allies includes huge middle-class tax increases that would cripple the economy at exactly the wrong moment.

2010 will be the perfect time for this campaign to work, with Bush’s tax cuts due to expire and the democrats being incapable of even considering a tax cut (because it is a “failed economic policy of the past”) it should be an easy sell. Democrats will try and say that the tax cuts didn’t stop the current economic crisis. (Heard Juan Williams say that on fox news sunday). They need to be reminded that there were only 2 years left before the tax cuts expired, in essence 2 years before a scheduled tax increase when the economy collapsed. They should also be directed to this comparison of bush’s recovery plan vs obama’s:

http://bizblogger.blogspot.com/2009/07/market-analysis-bush-vs-obama-stimulus.html

While we are at it whenever they say the “failed economic policies of the past” they should be challenged to say exactly what those policies were. If spelled out it will be obvious that Obama has doubled down on those same policies. A few of them that i can think of are:

Not drilling for our own oil, this helped create the oil spike that kicked off the current troubles.

Keeping interest rates too low for too long, this allowed people to take on too much debt that made them vulnerable when the oil spike hit.

Mixing of public and private sector companies, where the public side takes the risk and the private side takes the reward. That is what made the sub-prime market possible, if no one else would buy the bad securities you could always sell them to fannie/freddie.

“But the Bush tax cuts were only for the rich?” - Average Joe

The GOP must hammer this home! The expiration of the Bush tax cuts will impact EVERYONE.

Examples:

Standard Deduction for Joint Filers will shrink from 200 to 174 percent of the standard deduction for single filers, creating a marriage penalty.

Alternative Minimum Tax: Exemptions will decrease by $6,500 per filer.

Child Credit: This credit will shrink from $700 to $500 per child.

The Income Tax: Rates will increase between 3 and 4.5 percentage points in each bracket.

Oops...correction in my earlier comment.

Forget it. In local governments, GOP members help DNC members to lie, steal, violate family rights and violate property rights for their own gains. ...same in state and federal governments. They express their feelings of entitlement to big, dishonest taxes (e.g., impact fees, property tax hikes,...) as much as the Democrats do.

And yes, I agree with the message in your comment #17. We need to stop unnecessary personal expenditures to cut revenues, IMO. Local GOP leaders don’t want to hear from us. But they will, after they get hungry enough.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.