Meet the 2016 GOP, Same as Last Year’s GOP
- Supporting job creation;
- Reaching a long-term fiscal agreement that permanently replaces the sequester;
- Addressing Puerto Rico's debt crisis;
- Passing comprehensive tax reform;
- Passing comprehensive immigration reform;
- Restoring voting rights;
- Reforming our criminal justice system;
- Taking action to address gun violence; and
- Addressing our national security challenges.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “House Speaker Paul Ryan starting this month will push to turn the chamber into a platform for ambitious Republican policy ideas.”
So what’s on the docket so far?
- The 62nd vote to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act
- The 11th vote to attack women’s health
As you’ll recall, some Republicans wanted to shut down government last year in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. Here’s how well that went:
“Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) said Thursday… ‘We all know what it’s going to come down to: We’re either going to fund the government or we’re not,’ he said. ‘And the only way we’re going to fund the government is if it has a provision in there that continues the funding [for Planned Parenthood.] That’s what we have to reconcile in our conference.’” [The Hill, 9/24/15]
“‘Republicans in Congress who want to risk a shutdown over Planned Parenthood have an obligation to spell out how they would get it done. They can’t,’ [GOP Strategist Karl] Rove wrote.” [The Hill, 9/23/15]
“Eleven first-term Republicans in the House of Representatives on Wednesday appealed to party colleagues to back away from a threatened government closure on Oct. 1, citing concerns about the political and economic costs of such an action… ‘We are writing today to express our strong support for a funding resolution that will avoid another unnecessary and harmful government shutdown,’ said Ryan Costello, Elise Stefanik, Mimi Walters and eight other signers of the letter.” [Reuters, 9/23/15]
And a quick refresher of how the GOP reconciliationbill would take away the patient protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health security to nearly 18 million previously uninsured Americans since 2010:
Similar to the House version of the GOP Reconciliation Bill, the Senate substitute:
- Repeals the Affordable Care Act's medical device tax and the "Cadillac tax" on high-cost health plans;
- Ends the Prevention and Public Health Fund; and
- Eliminates funding to Planned Parenthood for one year
- Eliminates the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies for those with modest incomes;
- Repeals a tax credit available to small businesses for the purchase of employer-sponsored insurance;
- Ends the law’s Medicaid expansion, effective 2018.
- The CBO projects that this bill will reduce revenue by $1.1 trillion over the next ten years, a number that will “grow more rapidly beyond 2025.”
- As a result, CBO projects that “on balance, the effect of the legislation on deficits becomes increasingly negative over time.”
The American people haven’t been impressed with Republicans’ work and beginning 2016 just as they ran the House in 2015 will not bode well for them:
“Gallup’s year-end aggregated score for congressional approval was 16 percent, just two clicks above an all-time-low of 14 percent in 2013…. Writing for Gallup, Jeffrey M. Jones explained that Congress rarely enjoys that much goodwill... [b]ut the current valley has persisted, Jones writes, despite an improving economy. ‘Americans’ largely negative reviews of Congress, thus, are driven by more than just the health of the economy. The public appears to be frustrated with the federal government’s seeming inability to address the problems facing the country, with attempts to address issues such as immigration or the economy ending in a partisan stalemate.’” [Roll Call, 12/30/15]
While Republicans pander to the right with political messaging bills, Democrats will keep fighting for the American people and work to get things done on their behalf.
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