Former U.S. President Bill Clinton called the governing agenda Republicans unveiled today an “ideological document” and warned that it would be implemented at the expense of America’s middle class. “They don’t know that the model for success in the 21st century is a vigorous private sector, an effective government, a partnership, not these hysterical tirades against government,” Clinton said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York.
With less than two months before congressional midterm elections, House Republicans announced a governing agenda today that would cut federal spending, extend expiring tax cuts and repeal the Democrats’ health-care law.
The plan, titled “A Pledge to America,” is patterned after the “Contract with America,” which House Republicans unveiled in 1994, during Clinton’s first term. Six weeks after that platform was presented, the party swept the midterm elections, gaining a majority in the House for the first time in 40 years.
Clinton, 64, said the Republican agenda would cut aid to middle-class and lower-income Americans by 25 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars and damage education initiatives. He said the Republican proposals would hurt U.S. economic competitiveness globally.
‘Dismantle the Federal Government’
“Their objective for 30 years has been to dismantle the federal government,” he said. “They have a model for the future that none of our competitors have embraced.”
Clinton said Republicans also want to “repeal the financial oversight bill” President Barack Obama signed into law July 21 in response to the financial crisis that began in 2008. Rolling back the new protections would “let banks go back to gambling,” he said. “And that’s a mistake.”
“They want everybody else to pay more for less government,” Clinton said. “And none of it has anything to do with our competitive position. It’s an ideological document.”
The Republican plan calls for extending all the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 and which expire at the end of this year. Obama has proposed keeping the lower tax rates, excepting those only benefitting individuals who earn more than $200,000 or couples earning more than $250,000.
“They want to give 117 percent of all the tax benefits to the top 5 percent,” he said.
‘Our Intent’
The agenda outlines “our intent and how we will stand together and move this country forward,” Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, told reporters yesterday.
It would repeal the health-care law passed this year and replace it with longstanding Republican priorities such as controlling medical-malpractice costs, expanding health-savings accounts and allowing people to buy insurance policies across state lines. It would provide health coverage to those Americans who are most costly to insure by expanding high-risk pools and reinsurance programs.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio was an architect of the 1994 plan as well as the new version. Democrats regained the House majority in 2006.
The program was released by party leaders at a hardware store in Sterling, Virginia, as Republicans make their case to voters to retake the House majority in the Nov. 2 elections.
