President Obama perfectly summed up the Republican Party’s entire economic plan by calling it an unfunny version of the movie Groundhog Day.
Transcript:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Now, to give them credit, they do have one original idea, which is to repeal Obamacare — (laughter) — because they haven’t tried that 50 times. (Applause.) Fifty times they’ve tried to do that. (Laughter.) So that means they would take away health coverage not only for more than 7 million Americans who’ve done the responsible thing, signed up, bought health care for themselves and their families, but for the 3 million young adults who’ve been able to stay on their parents’ plan under this law. What I just told you about being able to stay on your parent’s plan — the Republicans don’t like that.
And their budget guts the rules we put in place to protect middle-class families from another financial crisis like the one that we’ve endured. So if this all sounds familiar, it should be familiar because it was their economic plan in the 2012 campaign, it was their economic plan in 2010. It’s like that movie Groundhog Day — (laughter) — except it’s not funny. (Applause.) If they tried to sell this sandwich at Zingerman’s, they’d have to call it the Stinkburger, or the Meanwich. (Laughter and applause.)
Look, here’s the truth. They’re not necessarily cold-hearted, they just sincerely believe that if we give more tax breaks to a fortunate few and we invest less in the middle class, and we reduce or eliminate the safety net for the poor and the sick, and we cut food stamps, and we cut Medicaid, and we let banks and polluters and credit card companies and insurers do only what’s best for their bottom line without the responsibility to the rest of us, then somehow the economy will boom, and jobs and prosperity will trickle down to everybody.
And when I say it that way, I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating — except I’m not. This is their theory. They’re pretty unabashed about it. And it’s not a new theory. They’ve held it for decades, through good times and bad. They were making the same argument against FDR when he was setting up Social Security.
Obama nailed it. The Republicans have convinced themselves that this is the way to build the economy. Of course, we have decades worth of economic data that proves them wrong, but they still insist that if the country diverts its economic resources to the top, the economy would prosper.
This argument is nothing new. Republicans have been saying touting this same failed ideology for nearly 100 years. The difference is that the Republican Party no longer contains a diversity of ideas. The extreme ideologues have taken over, and their economic plan reflects this extremism.
The Ryan budget is no different that what Mitt Romney championed in 2012, what John McCain advocated for in 2008, and the blow a hole in the deficit presidencies of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. The myth that if you give the rich more everyone else will benefit has been widely debunked, yet, America wakes up like Bill Murray’s character Phil in Groundhog Day destined to hear Republicans repeat the same tired economic plan over and over again for years on end.
The president’s right. It isn’t funny, and millions of people are getting hurt by the Republican insistence that the rich are all that matter.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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