To: Interested Parties
Fr: Democratic Leader’s Press Office
Dt: April 13, 2012
Re: On Mission for Millionaires, House GOP Ready to "Dream and Pass" Devastating Budget…Again
After spending two weeks with their constituents, Republicans refused to listen. They are still on a mission for millionaires—and they will let nothing, not even middle class families, stand in their way.
Next week, House Republicans will likely vote on a rule “deeming” their devastating budget. This “dream and pass” procedure allows the House republicans to pretend that both the House and Senate have:
Adopted their disastrous plan to end Medicare guarantee, give more tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and destroy jobs through the reconciliation process.
Support their scheme to walk away from the bipartisan Budget Control Act that was signed into law in order to make slash critical investments in education, jobs and health care through the appropriations process.
Forgetting their past convictions:
[Speaker John] Boehner said the [deem and pass] strategy was “one of the most outrageous things I have seen since I have been in Congress.” [Newsmax, 3/19/10]
Ending the Medicare guarantee:
AARP: “By creating a ‘premium support’ system for future Medicare beneficiaries, the proposal is likely to simply increase costs for beneficiaries while removing Medicare’s promise of secure health coverage — a guarantee that future seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.”
The Hill: CBO: Policies Would Cut Medicare Benefits
Punishing the middle class:
…Tax experts say, however, that the only way to get the top rate down to 25 percent — from 35 percent today — is to eliminate popular but expensive tax breaks like the deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and employer subsidies of health care coverage… [Associated Press, 3/20/12]
Chris Wallace: Are you willing to say that it would not only be revenue neutral, but also distributionally neutral, which means that the wealthy aren’t going to benefit and the middle class isn’t going to suffer? Rep. Paul Ryan: I don’t know. There is no way to know the answer to that question. [FOX News, 3/25/12]
Destroying Jobs:
The budget destroys 4.1 million American jobs through 2014. [Economic Policy Institute, 3/21/12]
But that’s all par for the course when House Republicans have a one-track mind:
Those making over $1 million per year receive an average tax cut of $394,000 while tax breaks for Big Oil and the special interests are preserved. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 4/12/12]
MISSION ACCOMLISHED.
