DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Statement on GOP Presidential Debate in Orlando

By DNC Press

Following the Fox News/Google Republican presidential debate held in Orlando, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement:

“Tonight, the Republican candidates for president held their second Florida debate in as many weeks, and whether they’re in Orlando, Tampa or any other part of the country, the message is always the same: They have no new ideas for creating jobs or helping America’s middle class. They simply want to get rid of all the things that protect and improve the lives of middle class families—Social Security, Medicare, the EPA, the Department of Education, Wall Street Reform, the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ and more. We heard more of the same failed policies of the past that the Tea Party is demanding they support—policies that would dismantle Social Security into pieces, end Medicare as we know it, and provide even more handouts and tax cuts to large corporations, special interests and the richest Americans while asking our nation’s seniors, students and middle-class families to pay for it.

“What we did not see tonight was a single Republican candidate stand up for the bipartisan American Jobs Act, the President’s proposal to get more Americans back to work and put more money back into their pockets. Nor did they offer support for President Obama’s new plan to restore economic security and reduce the deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next decade. That would require the Republican candidates to challenge the right-wing ideology of the Tea Party, and from everything we saw tonight, that is a pipe dream.

“Let’s be clear, the policies GOP frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry and the rest of the candidates all support would slash Social Security—cutting benefits and putting seniors at risk. And all the GOP candidates support the Republican budget plan in Congress ending Medicare as we know it.

“At a time when we need to be moving our country forward, Republicans are offering no plan for securing our economic future—and that is something we simply cannot afford.”