Bucking the trend of criticizing the party in power’s budget without supplying an alternative, House Republicans Thursday released their blueprint, which they say would lower taxes and reduce the deficit.
Republicans want to appear to be the party of solutions, not just criticism, but now that their proposal is in writing, Democrats are wasting no time trying to rip it apart.
Criticism of the GOP plan began seconds after the 19-page document was released, with an anchor on MSNBC complaining on live television that the station broke away from its White House coverage only to find that the GOP announcement contained no specific budget figures, just a broad outline.
Republicans propose a budget that would reduce the deficit by cutting wasteful programs and redirecting savings from the phaseout from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It would expand access to health care by providing tax incentives for people to sign up for coverage and would allow them to shop in other states for policies.
The plan calls for cutting taxes at all income levels and would reduce the capital gains tax. The proposal aims to increase domestic energy production by allowing more drilling and refining of oil and building more nuclear reactors. The GOP budget differs dramatically from the budget proposal by Democrats, which increases taxes and government programs and would tax U.S. oil and gas production as well as carbon emissions.
Republicans say the details are forthcoming, but the delay will provide Democrats with an entire week — including a round of Sunday talk shows — to lob insults at the proposal over its vagueness.
“Numbers, we don’t need no stinking numbers,” read the headline of a DNC mass e-mail ridiculing the Republicans’ budget outline an hour after they announced it. But for Republicans, the alternative of doing nothing was also fraught with political peril.
Just a few weeks ago, the GOP was stung by a Democratic attack ad portraying them as the party of “no.” Their lack of an alternative to Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget plan was illustrated with the sound of chirping crickets and a blank screen. Democrats praised the ad’s effectiveness and even Republican strategists conceded their party was vulnerable on the issue.
President Barack Obama joined in on the attack last week, invoking the anti-drug phrase Nancy Reagan made popular during her husband’s administration and turning it against the Gipper’s own party.
“ ‘Just say no’ is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs,” Obama said during a White House meeting with congressional Democratic leaders. “It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policy is proposed by the other party.”
Republicans were eager on Thursday to finally hold a budget of their own before the cameras.
“Two nights ago, the president said we haven’t seen a budget out of the Republicans,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, of Ohio, said, waving the document at a news conference. “Well, that’s not true, because here it is, Mr. President.”
Some Republican strategists say regardless of the criticism, Republicans can only benefit from providing an alternative.
“If Democrats take the time to criticize Republican alternatives, the more attention the media will actually give it,” said Ron Bonjean, who was a top aide to former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R- Ill.
There are, however, advantages to the “no” approach, suggested Carl Forti, former spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
“If the Democrats want to call us the “party of no” let’s wrap ourselves in it and be proud of it. No more doubling the debt, no more outrageous spending, no more stimulus that won’t help now,” Forti said. “There’s a message for us here that we should embrace.”
