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February 23, 2022 11:01 AM UTC

This is Why Republicans Don't Want to Talk About Their Ideas

  • 6 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
The reviews are in for Rick Scott’s GOP platform.

Back in August 2020, the Republican Party infamously announced that it had NO AGENDA heading into the November election. The national “party platform” was literally just, “Do whatever Donald Trump wants.”

Here in Colorado, the GOP platform was slightly less vapid, though no less destructive: It was all about continuing the red meat, right-wing lunacy that placated the Republican base. In 2021, Colorado Republicans added to that vision a strong dose of conspiracy nonsense. Heading into the 2022 elections, ambiguity is still king; one of the leading Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, Gino Campana, seems to be basing his entire campaign strategy around saying the phrase “American dream” as many times as possible.

You can see, then, why it was such a big problem on Tuesday when Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott — the Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) — decided to release an 11-step policy plan for the GOP that is downright bonkers.

As Jennifer Rubin explains for The Washington Post:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) might be ruthless, cynical and power-hungry, but he is not dumb. There is a reason he declared late last year that the GOP would not put out an agenda for the midterms. When most voters learn what the party stands for (e.g., curtailing education on race, rolling back environmental laws, criminalizing abortion), they don’t like it…[Pols emphasis]

…Let’s start with what is not in there: any proposal to bring down inflation (which Republicans have been hollering about for months); to increase wages or reduce income inequality; to prepare workers for the 21st-century economy; to provide relief from tariffs (which are essentially taxes); and to increase school performance on basic subjects.

What it does include is embarrassing. Start with this: “We will secure our border, finish building the wall, and name it after President Donald Trump.” Republicans had their chance to do this when the defeated former president was still in office and failed. Moreover, such a project would be so expensive that it has lost support in deep-red Texas. It’s also irrelevant to real border protection — so much so that it has become a punchline.

Oof. Now here’s the kicker from Rubin:

Taken as a whole, the agenda reveals that the GOP is not a political party with ideas to improve the lives of Americans. It’s a frightful expression of White grievance and contempt for the intelligence of voters. And it confirms what we have long suspected: Republicans don’t lack an agenda; they’re just shy about revealing how unpopular it is. [Pols emphasis]

Critics jumped on Scott’s policy proposal, which includes a huge tax increase for all Americans. Scott’s plan is also heavy on affirming strict gender roles and requiring more people to recite “The Pledge of Allegiance,” but it’s the tax increases that are freaking out other Republicans. Via a separate Washington Post story: “It’s dramatically off-message for where Republicans are going on taxes — they shouldn’t be talking about raising taxes on anybody,” said Brian Riedl, a former aide to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a center-right think tank.

As POLITICO reports, the criticism was widespread from other Republicans:

Privately, officials from some top Republican Senate campaigns mocked the plan, questioning why the Florida Republican senator released it in the first place — and why the GOP would ever suggest raising taxes at all during a midterm year featuring record-high inflation and unpopular Democratic control.

Less than a day later, Scott was already backpedaling. This headline from Business Insider tells the story well:

Via Business Insider (2/23/22)

There is a connection here to the story in Colorado of a new conservative school board in Douglas County infuriating teachers, parents, and students with its draconian attacks. Republicans don’t like to talk openly about their ideas because most people don’t like them.

Scott’s policy blueprint should serve as a warning to all 2022 voters. Republicans are saying the quiet part out loud (again) and it should scare the hell out of Americans.

 

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6 thoughts on “This is Why Republicans Don’t Want to Talk About Their Ideas”

  1. “it should scare the hell out of Americans……….”

    Not really, Pols. A little exaggeration again? Most Americans I know don’t scare easy.

    But all the b.s. about completing the Wall once again raises the question that no pro-Wall crackpot has ever answered. How does the Wall get built in the sheer vertical cliffs of the Rio Grande River gorges in and around Big Bend National Park?

    My long held thought is that the vast majority of pro-Wallers are nothing more than armchair adventurers and keyboard commandos.

  2. Scott’s plan is a gift that can keep on giving.  Washington Post pointed out his plan to have everyone pay at least some income tax

    received so much blowback to the ambiguity of his proposal within less than 24 hours that he was forced to offer two immediate caveats, insisting the new tax wouldn’t apply to seniors or those who are not, as he described them, “able bodied.”

    I’m also a fan of

    his plan to cut the budget of the Internal Revenue Service by as much as 50 percent, a provision that would make enforcing the nation’s tax laws significantly more difficult.

    More people filing AND less capacity for the IRS.  What could possibly go wrong?  [last time I needed to call the IRS, the “estimated wait time” was something like an hour and twenty minutes.

    But realistically, the real kicker in the plan is the “sunset” provision

    Perhaps the most dramatic change in Scott’s plan is his pitch for “all” federal legislation to expire after only five years, which if ever enacted would enormously complicate legislating.

    “complicate legislating,” indeed.  “The last time Congress completed all [BUDGET] bills on time was … in 1996.”  We are on Continuing Resolution #3 for this cycle.

    Or think about the current process of getting a reauthorization of the Violence against Women Act.

     * As a result of the United States federal government shutdown of 2018–2019, the Violence Against Women Act expired on December 21, 2018.[39] It was temporarily reauthorized by a short-term spending bill on January 25, 2019, but expired again on February 15, 2019.[40]

     * On April 4, 2019, the reauthorization act passed in the House by a vote of 263–158,

     * On March 17, 2021, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021 passed the House.

     * the “Latest Action”  :Senate – 10/05/2021 Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings held. “

     * today’s update:  “a bipartisan group of senators has recently come to a deal to reauthorize the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which expired in 2019. It’s not yet clear whether the measure has the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, but its prospects are looking better now that negotiating Democrats agreed to drop a gun-control provision that many Republicans oppose. Ostensibly, the bill could proceed to a vote in the near future.”

    Of course, if it passes with these changes, it will need to go BACK to the House for approval. 

    1. It's the reincarnation of Mitt Romney's 47% remark.

      As for reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, why stop there? Why not recite the Lord's Prayer?

      This guy is a piece of work. He literally ran a business which was convicted of fraud yet freely dispenses advice on moral, ethics and values. 

      1. It seems like it was just yesterday that Fluffy was counting his windfall from the Ttumpy Tax Cuts. 
         

        #Prosperity Jesus giveth and #ProsperityJesus taketh away. 

  3. Might Rick Scott be DJT's stalking horse to take on the Old Crow for majority leader next year? He's running a stealth campaign for leader.

    And here I thought Ted Cruz was Trump and the Screwball Caucus's (i.e., Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, and Cancun Cruz) candidate for leader.

  4. The CNN website article was just a shill piece praising him for having the guts to tax retired and disabled people.  Even the article title was slanted to cast doubt on why the White House wouldn't want everyone to pay taxes.  It got even more excited discussing Scott's book burning efforts in education.  In short, it looked like another in-depth NPR segment covering both sides.

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