Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:37 pm
Republicans offered no new policy ideas while resurrecting some old lies about immigration and ObamaCare. Here are five reasons to be glad that you didn’t watch the Fox News Republican presidential debate.
1). All Republicans Oppose Raising The Minimum Wage –
The first question was about the fast food worker strike and raising the minimum wage. Not surprisingly, Trump said paying workers more money wouldn’t help them. Ben Carson said that the American people need to be “educated about the minimum wage,” and Marco Rubio told viewers that tax reform a.k.a. tax cuts for the wealthy would be better than increasing the minimum wage.
Republicans are setting themselves up for a major defeat as an October poll of low-wage workers found that 75% supported raising the minimum wage to $15/hour and the ability to join a union. The debate demonstrated that Republicans are on the wrong side of the minimum wage issue.
2). Carly Fiorina Falls On Her Face When Asked Why Democrats Are Better At Creating Jobs –
Carly Fiorina was asked how she would counter the argument that Democratic presidents are better at creating jobs than Republican presidents. Fiorina responded with a long-winded dance about what she would do as president to grow the economy, but nowhere in her answer was an explanation how she would counter the fact that the economy does better under Democratic presidents.
Fiorina’s inability to answer the question illustrated a fundamental problem for Republicans. Whoever the Republican nominee is will not be able to argue that they can create more jobs after President Obama brought the country back from George W. Bush’s Great Recession. Republicans can’t argue the issues, which is why they have to deflect and distract anytime they are confronted with the facts on their economic failures.
3). Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Carly Fiorina Uncork 3 Huge Republican Lies –
Two Republican candidates showed that their party has learned nothing from their party’s 2008 and 2012 presidential election losses by bringing back two tired old lies that have failed Republicans in elections past. Marco Rubio claimed that ObamaCare is killing jobs, and Ted Cruz claimed that immigration is hurting jobs and the economy. Fiorina claimed that ObamaCare is crushing small businesses.
A study by The Urban Institute found that ObamaCare doesn’t kill jobs, “We find that the ACA had virtually no adverse effect on labor force participation, employment, or usual hours worked per week through 2014. This conclusion is true for ACA policies overall and for the Medicaid expansions, in particular, and it applies to the full sample of nonelderly persons and to the subgroup of nonelderly persons with a high school education or less who are more likely to be affected by the ACA.”
The bad news for Carly Fiorina is that only 3% of small businesses were impacted by the ACA.
Ted Cruz was not telling the truth. As reported in 2014, “According to the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project, there were 8.4 million unauthorized immigrants employed in the U.S.; representing 5.2 percent of the U.S. labor force (an increase from 3.8 percent in 2000). Their importance was highlighted in a report by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs that stated, “Without the undocumented population, Texas’ workforce would decrease by 6.3 percent” and Texas’ gross state product would decrease by 2.1 percent. Furthermore, certain segments of the U.S. economy, like agriculture, are entirely dependent upon illegal immigrants.”
4). Jeb Bush Blames Obama For His Brother’s Failure In The Middle East –
Bush blamed Obama for a “failure of leadership” in Iraq. It was amazing to hear a Bush argue for more war in the Middle East as if he had no idea that the Iraq war remains a foreign policy blunder that is thought of badly by a majority of the American people. The Bush tactic of blaming Obama for his brother’s failures, while arguing that the country should return to his brother’s policies is exactly why his campaign is failing. Bush tried to pull a page from the Romney playbook by sounding like he is the most electable. Bush tried to get fired up about foreign policy and take on Trump, but he got tongue-tied and lost his momentum.
Jeb Bush’s plan is to claim that he can beat Hillary Clinton while blaming President Obama for his brother’s foreign policy failures.
5). In Mixed Up Republican World, Regulating The Big Banks Causes Financial Collapse –
The Republican presidential candidates agreed that not regulating the banks would prevent another financial collapse. Carly Fiorina called Dodd-Frank socialism and claimed the CFPB is digging through individual Americans financial records to detect fraud. In crazy Republican land, the way to prevent financial collapses is to get government out of the way and not regulate the banks.
Republicans again demonstrated that they have learned nothing from their previous failures by doubling down on another failed policy.
The debate itself was a colossal bore. The top eight contenders for the Republican nomination managed to avoid proposing any new policies while doubling down on their previous failures. No one should be surprised if the ratings for the Republican debates continue to slide. The energy and charisma of Trump have vanished, and all that is left is a bunch of Republicans with no new ideas trying to sell America on a return to failure.
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