Caucus Day Memo
MEMORANDUM
To: Interested Parties
From: DNC Research & DNC Communications
Date: January 3, 2007
Re: Whoever Wins, They All Offer a Third Bush Term
Today the American people take their first, long-awaited step toward electing a new President. While none of the Republican candidates have generated much excitement on the campaign trail, one thing has become crystal clear: whoever wins the Republican caucuses, a vote for any one of them is a vote for a third Bush term.
On issue after issue, while Democrats are offering real solutions and new ideas for providing the American people the change they want, all of the Republicans have promised four more years of President Bush’s failed policies. The American people want a new direction in Iraq, but not one Republican candidate has a plan to end the war. The voters may be looking for leaders with new ideas for helping more than 47 million uninsured Americans get health care coverage, but none of the Republican candidates have offered a plan to extend coverage or reduce health care costs. While the American people expect a return to fiscal discipline, all of the Republicans have promised to extend President Bush’s budget-busting handouts for the super wealthy and their special interest friends.
No wonder Democrats are generating more energy, money and enthusiasm on the campaign trail. Democratic candidates are attracting more voters to their events, raising more money than the Republican field [$223 million, compared with $152 million for Republicans] and are better organized. [Wall Street Journal, 12/31/07] Some estimates are predicting record participation in today’s Democratic caucuses. All of this stands in stark contrast to a divided Republican field and a general lack of enthusiasm among Republican voters. Four in 10 GOP voters have switched candidates in the past month alone, and nearly two-thirds say they may change their minds again. [AP, 12/27/07] Meanwhile, polls show voters across the country are “far more likely” to trust Democrats than Republicans when it comes to key issues like the economy and health care. [AP, 12/28/07]
No matter how you look at it, one thing is clear: the voters want change, not a third Bush term. Americans see that Democrats represent the future while Republicans represent the past. As this memo shows:
• No Republican Candidate Has a Plan to End the War in Iraq;
• No Republican Has a Plan to Expand Coverage and Cut Costs;
• All of the Republicans Favor Privatizing Social Security and Cutting Benefits; and
• All of the Republicans Favor More Budget-Busting Tax Cuts for the Wealthy.
FOUR MORE YEARS? NO THANKS!!!
Whoever Wins Early States Promises More Of The Same
IRAQ: NO REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE HAS A PLAN TO END THE WAR IN IRAQ
Mitt Romney: I Wouldn’t Presume To Do It Differently From Bush. During an appearance on the O’Reilly Factor, Mitt Romney said, “I wouldn't presume to present a plan different from that of the President. But I believe he was right to take on the war on terror on an aggressive front rather than a defensive front. We toppled the government ... walking away would mean a humanitarian disaster. We're there and we have a responsibility to finish the job.” [O’Reilly Factor, FNC, 9/27/06]
• Romney Displays "Superficial" Knowledge on Iraq. A Time Magazine column highlighted Romney's "superficial" knowledge of the war and other top issues and blasted Romney for "the brazen cynicism of his candidacy," saying "he skims the surface of issues" in a stump speech that "never mentions Iraq." In fact, on a recent swing through New Hampshire, Romney "cruised through two performances before the word Iraq perforated his balloon." When finally asked about it by a high school student, Romney "offered a welter of details… which sounded sort of knowledgeable but was actually quite superficial" before getting to the point: "he would support the President." [Time.com, 5/31/07]
Rudy Giuliani: Iraq Is Not In My Hands. Giuliani said, “Iraq may get better; Iraq may get worse. We may be successful in Iraq; we may not be. I don’t know the answer to that. That’s in the hands of other people.” [New York Times, 6/13/07]
• Giuliani Didn’t Have Time To Help Shape Iraq Policy. Giuliani resigned from the Iraq Study Group in May of 2006, then criticized its findings. When he quit, he said he didn’t have the time. Newsday reported, “It’s not clear that he attended a single meeting. Two of the group’s top advisers said they didn’t even know he had been a member.” [Washington Post, 6/1/06, 12/19/06; Newsday (New York), 11/17/06]
John McCain Said That Iraq Was "On The Right Track" As The Country Moved Closer To Civil War. Speaking on the "Imus In The Morning" radio show on March 1, 2006, McCain played down the increasing civil violence in Iraq. When Imus remarked that Iraq “already looks like a civil war,” McCain responded, saying, “I keep trying to look at the bright side of this because we have to because the consequences of failure are catastrophic. But the gathering of the seven most respected religious leaders the day before yesterday, calling for calm and calling for some kind of reconciliation, I think, was important. I think, at least we're on the right track here.” [MSNBC, Imus in the Morning, 3/1/06]
• McCain Claimed He Could Safely Walk Around Certain Baghdad Neighborhoods. “McCain's latest problem began before he left for the region, when he told Bill Bennett on the radio that ‘there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk today.’ After Michael Ware of CNN's Baghdad bureau accused the senator of living in ‘Neverland,’ McCain charged that its reporters who are living in a ‘time warp of three months ago.’” [Newsweek, Alter, 4/16/07 edition]
• McCain Missed Iraq War Votes Because He Was Too Busy Campaigning. Senator McCain was campaigning while he missed each of the first three most crucial votes on the Iraq war this year. The first time, on February 5, “McCain admitted he was mending fences with conservatives in Texas when the Republicans in the Senate blocked a debate on the war.” The second time, on February 17, McCain chose “to spend the day courting conservative voters for his presidential campaign in Iowa,” and then immediately headed to Orlando, Florida for the National Religious Broadcasters convention. And finally, McCain missed the third Iraq war vote on March 15, because he was “campaigning in Iowa.” [Dallas Morning News, 2/5/07; AP, 2/16/07; MSNBC.com, 2/14/07; Los Angeles Times, 3/16/07]
Mike Huckabee Just Plain Confused: Criticizes Bush’s “Arrogant Mentality” But Praises His “Stubbornness” In The Face Of Opposition. Mike Huckabee has drawn fire for saying that the Bush-Cheney Administration has an “arrogant bunker mentality” that pits the United States against the world. But he’s previously said that was a good thing, praising Bush for his steadfastness in the face of criticism: In January 2007, Huckabee saluted President Bush’s speech calling for tens of thousands of additional troops to be sent to Iraq. “I think we have to give the commander-in-chief an opportunity to make this succeed. You said people have said he's stubborn. That's a good quality in an executive. You don't want someone who changes the course of a military every time there's a new opinion poll. He's looking at briefing papers as commander- in-chief of our military that's bigger than I used to be. Every day, he sees those kind of intelligence reports. He's surrounded by military experts and intelligence experts. His decisions aren't always perfect, but I believe they're in the best interests of the United States.” [Hannity & Colmes, 1/10/2007]
• Huh?–kabee Responds to Bhutto Assassination by Warning of “Unusual Activity of Pakistanis” in America. “Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says the assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto underscores the need to secure the America's borders to prevent potential terror attacks here. "We ought to have an immediate, very clear monitoring of our borders and particularly to make sure if there's any unusal activity of Pakistanis coming into the country. [Radioiowa.com, 12/28/2007 http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=1F024482-C3A1-C582-4142B3E107EAC902]
HEALTH CARE: NO REPUBLICAN HAS A PLAN TO EXPAND COVERAGE AND CUT COSTS
Mitt Romney Embraced Bush’s Idea of Creating Tax Benefits to Encourage Americans to Buy Private Insurance. “Like President Bush, Romney would create tax benefits for people who buy private insurance. He would also reduce the requirements that states and the federal government put on private plans.” [Washington Post, 8/29/07]
John McCain Does Not Have a Plan For the Uninsured. According to the Wall Street Journal, McCain’s plan does not focus on “reducing the ranks of the uninsured,” of which there are about 47 million, or one in seven Americans. [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]
• Concord Monitor: Just Like Bush Plan Criticized By Experts. “Critics of the idea say a free-market approach won't work for health insurance the way it does for car insurance. The elderly, the poor and the sickest may find themselves priced out of the market.” [Concord Monitor, 8/1/07]
• Experts: McCain’s Plan Would Make It Hard For Those Who Need It Most To Find Coverage. In a plan like McCain’s for individual coverage, it would be “difficult for older, sicker people to find affordable coverage or, in some cases, any coverage at all.” [Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07]
Rudy Giuliani Plan “Risky.” “It is a risky move: Most people don't want to see their insurance plans cover fewer services.” [Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07]
• Giuliani’s Plan Won’t Be Popular With The American People. “‘Giving people more choices may sound good, but public-opinion surveys show that most Americans prefer getting insurance from their employer to buying it on their own,’ said Robert Blendon, an expert on public opinion and health at the Harvard School of Public Health.” [Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07]
• Giuliani Routinely Slashed Important Health Services in NYC. Examples of annual cuts include: In 2000, “Giuliani's budget also includes a $2.1 million cut for city-run child-health clinics serving the poor, and it slashes $1 million from a program providing family-planning services in poor neighborhoods with high infant-mortality rates.” A 1999 plan would have cut $500,000 from a program that encourages HIV/AIDS testing. A 1997 proposal cut $78 million in city-provided Medicaid funds, and in 1995 he actually asked the state to cut the Medicaid funds it sent to the city [Newsday (NY), 5/10/00, Aids Policy and Law, 5/14/99; Newsday (NY), 1/31/97, 1/22/97]
Mike Huckabee’s Plan For The Uninsured: Don’t Get Sick In His State: Arkansas Ranked 44th Nationally in Uninsured Adults Not Receiving Proper Healthcare. According to a national report, "The Coverage Gap," done by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to kick off Cover the Uninsured Week, Arkansas ranked 44th nationally in the percentage of uninsured adults who don't get proper health care. [Arkansas News Bureau, 4/26/06]
• Huckabee Health Official Said “AIDS Is Caused By Behavior” Illegal In Arkansas And That If There Were No More Sodomy or IV Drug Use, The Epidemic Would Be Over. In 1999, Huckabee appointed Dr. Fay Boozman director of the Arkansas Department of Public Health. In 1997, Boozman said, "AIDS is caused by behavior that is illegal in this state. We know the cure for AIDS." The state's sodomy law includes a prohibition against having sex with animals and with members of the same sex. Boozman said later, “AIDS is spread and continued by those two activities. If there was no IV drug use and there was no sodomy, then the AIDS epidemic would be over." [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 6/8/97, 12/1/98, 2/17/99]
SOCIAL SECURITY: REPUBLICANS FAVOR PRIVATIZATION AND BENEFIT CUTS
Mitt Romney Plans “Deep Cuts” in Social Security. Romney “[I]s weighing a cut in the top individual tax rate from the current 35 percent; a reduction in the corporate income tax; and deep cuts in automatic-benefit programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
[Bloomberg, 2/7/2007]
• Romney Now Intrigued by Idea of Reduction in Benefits and Privatization. Romney aides say he is intrigued by the ideas of Democrat Robert Posen who served on Bush's 2001 Social Security Commission. Posen's plan calls for "progressive indexation" that maintains the current Social Security benefit formula for the poor while providing gradual benefit reductions for wealthier individuals. The plan also allows people who receive reduced benefits to put as much as 2 percent of their pay into private investment accounts. [Salt Lake Tribune, 2/7/07]
• Romney Previously Promised Not to Cut Social Security. Romney said he would not cut Social Security to meet his goal of balancing the federal budget. "I don't think you go back and rewrite the contract the government has with people who've retired." [Boston Globe, 10/17/2004]
Rudy Giuliani Supports Privatizing Social Security. Giuliani “favors allowing some investment in private accounts,” which would gut the guaranteed benefits American workers depend on in their retirement. [Providence Journal, 1/28/2007]
John McCain Promises “Hard Choices;” Previously Chose Privatization. "If I'm President, I'll submit a plan to save Social Security and Medicare, and I'll ask Democrats in Congress to do the same. We'll listen to what people outside government suggest as well. I'll work on a bipartisan basis to make the hard choices… and if Congress is afraid to make those choices, then they can just let me do it. I'll take the heat. I'll ask Congress to let me submit a comprehensive proposal. I'll prepare it carefully, fairly and honestly" [McCain Economic Speech, 4/16/2007]
• 1998: McCain Voted To Create Personal Retirement Accounts. In 1998, McCain voted for legislation expressing that the budget surplus can be used to establish a program of personal retirement accounts for working Americans to reduce unfunded liabilities of Social Security program. [Vote #56, SCR 86, 4/1/1998]
Fred Thompson Doesn’t Recall Bush Plan. “Thompson says a top challenge for the next president is fixing Social Security. Asked how his ideas for overhauling the system differ from those of George W. Bush, the actor and former Tennessee senator says: ‘I don't even remember the details of his plan.’” [Bloomberg, 9/6/2007]
• Reminder… He “Vigorously” Supports It. Fred Thompson vigorously supports President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. In 2000, when speaking to a group of Tennessee Republicans, he “applauded Bush for his plan to change Social Security,” and in 2001 he appeared on CNN and defended the president’s plan as providing a better return in the long run.
[Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), 8/22/2000; CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports, 3/24/2001]
TAXES – MORE BUDGET-BUSTING FAVORS FOR THE WEALTHY AND SPECIAL INTERESTS
Mitt Romney Bragged about Support for Bush Tax Cuts. During a November 2006 press conference held in Arizona, Romney outlined differences between himself and McCain. Romney said "he was quicker than McCain to endorse President Bush's tax cuts." [East Valley Sun, 11/14/2006]
• Washington Post: Romney’s Tax Plan “Poorly Designed, Expensive.” The Washington Post criticized Romney’s tax proposal in October 2007, saying that his tax “scheme” was “poorly designed, expensive” and that Americans already have “ample opportunity to save tax-free, with an array of vehicles for retirement and education savings.” [Washington Post editorial, 10/16/2007]
• FACT: Vast Majority of Savings Would Benefit the Wealthy. “Critics pointed out that while many families would benefit, the vast majority of the total dollar savings would go to the wealthy, who own the most stocks, have the biggest bank accounts, and reap the most capital gains from real estate and other investments.” [Boston Globe, 9/8/2007]
Rudy Giuliani Defended Bush’s Tax Cuts. “He [Giuliani] strongly defended the Bush tax cuts, saying ‘tax reductions stimulate an essentially private economy. Why Democrats don't get this, I don't understand. ... They attack President Bush for lowering taxes twice and for taking us to war.’ ‘It's pretty smart if you're going to run a war to lower taxes,’ he added, saying that such policies ‘stimulate the private sector.’” [San Francisco Chronicle, 7/24/07]
• Giuliani Exaggerates His Record On Taxes, Taking Credit For Nine Tax Cuts Where None Is Due. In an article entitled “Giuliani’s Tax Puffery,” independent watchdog FactCheck.org found Giuliani’s claims on cutting taxes highly misleading. They wrote that “the mayor takes credit for too many tax cuts” and called his claims an “overstatement.” Their research showed Giuliani can’t claim credit for nine of the 23 cuts he cites. For example, with the personal income tax surcharge, “he strongly opposed one of the largest cuts for which he claims credit, reversing himself only after a five-month standoff with the city council.” They also found that “he takes personal credit for seven cuts that were initiated not by him but by the state, according to the city's Independent Budget Office, a publicly funded, nonpartisan watchdog agency that puts out highly regarded budget analyses.” The New York Daily News wrote that Giuliani’s claim is “not really true, say tax-cutting allies of the former mayor, as well as experts at the city's Independent Budget Office and elsewhere.” [FactCheck.org, 7/27/07 (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/giulianis_tax_puffery.html); Daily News (NY), 7/29/07]
John McCain Voted For Bush Tax Cuts And Defended The Flip-Flop As A Legislative Gimmick. John McCain voted to extend tax cuts supported by the president that were set to expire between 2005 and 2010. “The Senate voted 53-47…in favor of extending the president's investor tax cuts on dividends and capital gains. Joining in this breakthrough vote was John McCain, the senator who voted against these tax cuts when they were introduced in 2003. This is an important shift for the GOP presidential frontrunner[.]” McCain’s vote was described as “a sharp reversal of his anti-tax-cut posture,” though he defended the shift, saying, “it was a gimmick,” reasoning that “the tax cuts were temporary and then had to be made permanent. The tax cuts are now there and voting to revoke them would have been to--not to extend them would have meant a tax increase. I’ve never voted for a tax increase in my life.” [Senate vote #10, H.R. 4297, 2/2/06, passed 66-31; New York Times, 2/21/06; Washington Times, 3/6/06; NBC News, 4/2/06]
• NY Times: McCain Made A Stand On Tax Policy But Didn’t Hold To It. “Mr. McCain made a stand by voting against the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003 and Mr. Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. But, like his fellow Republican contenders, he supports extending tax cuts for investors, even though they are not paid for.” [Editorial, New York Times, 3/21/06]
Mike Huckabee Backs Fair Tax. Plan Would Lead to 34 Percent Sales Tax, Repeal of Middle Class Deductions. According to analyses of Huckabee’s Fair Tax, “The 30 percent rate assumes that the tax would be imposed on a broad range of goods and services that has no precedent -- putting a hefty and politically implausible extra tax bite on purchases of new homes, rent, food, health insurance, medical care and mortgage interest. Finally, the FairTax would hit the middle class the hardest. Consumers would receive a monthly "prebate" on expenditures up to the federal poverty level, providing a cushion and probably even a modest benefit for those with the lowest incomes. The top earners, those with incomes greater than $200,000, would see significant tax cuts. So who makes up the difference? It's likely that taxpayers with incomes in the middle range -- about $40,000 to $100,000 -- would pay more. And they call that a FairTax?” [Editorial, Washington Post, 12/31/2007]
