BREAKING: Nikki Haley Endorsed by Architects of MAGAnomics Agenda

In response to far-right extreme group Americans for Prosperity Action endorsing Nikki Haley, DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“It’s no surprise the Koch network, architects of Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda, found their match in Nikki Haley, who checks all of their boxes: slashing taxes for the ultra-wealthy, gutting Social Security and Medicare, and ripping health care away from millions of Americans. Republicans have entered a new stage in their primary – lighting millions of dollars on fire to attack each other, all the while reminding voters that every MAGA Republican candidate is in lockstep support of the same extreme, out-of-touch agenda the American people rejected in 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023, and will also reject next November, regardless of who emerges from this messy primary.” 

Nikki Haley has a yearslong record of attacking the Affordable Care Act and called to “defund” it.

Haley: “We have fought Obamacare in South Carolina as much as we possibly could. We said no to the state exchanges. We said no to the Medicaid expansion. … They just turned and set every state back with this bill that we know did not work.”

Haley: “When it came to Obamacare, we didn’t just say ‘no,’ we said ‘never.’ … And we’re going to keep on fighting until we get people like [Senator Tim Scott] and everybody else in Congress to defund Obamacare.”

Haley: “We would end a disastrous health care program, and replace it with reforms that lowered costs and actually let you keep your doctor.”

Live News 5: “Gov. Haley speaks against Affordable Care Act, SC prepares for key deadline”

Americans for Prosperity was a proponent of blocking the passage of the Affordable Care Act and has since relentlessly attacked and pushed for the repeal of this landmark legislation for over a decade.

Washington Post: “Americans for Prosperity, the limited-government group that has spent $35 million attacking Democrats over the Affordable Care Act, released four ads on Tuesday—in New Hampshire, Louisiana, Colorado and Michigan.”

“The most dubious claim in the ad is a headline, quoting a Forbes magazine blog, saying ‘Health Care Premiums up 90% in New Hampshire.’ But that factoid has been debunked, both by news outlets in New Hampshire and in extensive detail by our colleagues at FactCheck.org. In essence, the number comes from a single anonymous insurance broker who participated in a survey by Morgan Stanley. By contrast, the New Hampshire Department of Insurance says it anticipated an 8-percent decrease in premiums after subsidies.”

CNBC: “The political advocacy group backed by billionaire Charles Koch is pushing forward with its own health-care agenda as President Joe Biden’s administration looks to build on the Affordable Care Act.”

Politico: “The conservative outside-spending behemoth Americans for Prosperity will launch a $9 million ad campaign targeting the Affordable Care Act in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the law, AFP president Tim Phillips tells me.”

Americans for Prosperity: “Instead of doubling down on the ACA’s glaring inefficiencies and shocking inequities, we should enact real health reforms that bring down costs through markets, not mandates.” 

Haley is pursuing a MAGAnomics agenda of cutting Social Security and Medicare and blocked Medicaid expansion as governor of South Carolina.

Andrew Ross Sorkin: “Are you on board with cutting entitlements in a big and meaningful way?”

Haley: “Social security goes bankrupt in 10 years, Medicare goes bankrupt in eight. Anyone that says they’re not going to take on entitlement reform means they’re going to go in and be president and leave the country bankrupt. You can’t do that.”

Associated Press: “Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is proposing changes to entitlement programs for younger generations, opening the door to potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare if elected.”

Washington Post: “Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U. N. ambassador who is planning to announce her own presidential bid this month, also praised Ryan’s Medicare proposal at the time and said lawmakers should examine Medicare and Social Security spending to address federal debt.

“‘What they need to be doing is looking at entitlements,’ Haley said in a 2010 interview on Fox News. ‘Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s actually go to the heart of what is causing government to grow, and tackle that.’”

Haley: “Any candidate that says they’re not going to touch entitlements, means that they’re basically going to go into office and leave America bankrupt. … We change retirement age to reflect life expectancy.”

Semafor: “As governor of South Carolina at the time, Nikki Haley praised the [Paul Ryan] fiscal blueprint for ‘trying to bring common sense to this world of insanity.’”

NBC News: “Haley opposed efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (South Carolina remains just one of 11 states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid to allow more Americans to have health insurance).”

ABC News: “In her introduction of former presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley vowed to oppose President Obama’s recommendations to expand Medicaid in her state.”

Haley: ‘They’re trying to throw Obamacare and tell us that we have to bust our budgets and expand Medicaid. … Not in South Carolina. As long as I am the governor of South Carolina, we will not expand Medicaid on President Obama’s watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever.”

Like Nikki Haley, this extreme MAGA group is also hellbent on ending Social Security and Medicare as we know them. 

Americans for Prosperity: “Is Social Security in Trouble? Yes, and We Need Automatic Fiscal Stabilizers to Help”

Americans for Prosperity: “3 Things to Know About the Trustees Report on Social Security and Medicare”

“It’s time to reform these programs before it’s too late!”

Haley put the rich and powerful over working families as governor of South Carolina and now is proposing to go even further by making permanent Trump’s MAGAnomics tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations. 

Haley: “Well I think what I’d like to see is us go back to what Trump had under the tax cuts under him … I was there.”

Forbes: “Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

Aiken Standard: “Gov.-elect Nikki Haley, who takes office next week, campaigned on eliminating the state’s corporate income tax.”

Augusta Chronicle: “State budget advisers predict eliminating South Carolina’s corporate income tax over four years, as both Haley and House Republicans propose, would reduce state revenues by $61.6 million in the first year and $218.3 million annually when the phase-out is complete.”

Americans for Prosperity played a key role in the passage of Trump’s MAGAnomics tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy, spent millions trying to drum up support for the tax scam, and now wants to make permanent those tax breaks.

Americans For Prosperity: “Congress should act to protect the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act … making permanent all tax cuts that are due to expire in 2025 and removing unnecessary barriers to opportunity.”

CNBC: “Koch, who’s worth more than $60 billion, and his network notched several wins while Trump was in office, including tax cuts and the appointments of multiple conservative Supreme Court justices.”

New York Times: “Conservative activist groups like Americans for Prosperity, celebrating what they expect is the imminent passage of a tax package that they and the Republican Party’s corporate backers have sought for a generation, now need to convince ordinary Americans that this is good for them too.”

The Intercept: “Koch Brothers’ Internal Strategy Memo On Selling Tax Cuts: Ignore The Deficit”

Bloomberg: “Koch-Backed Groups Are Selling Trump’s Tax Cuts Door-to-Door Ahead of the Midterms”

The Intercept: “Koch Brothers Orchestrate Grassroots Effort to Lower Corporate Taxes, Documents Show”