Chair Wasserman Schultz’s Statement on Republican Debate in New Hampshire

By Josh Cohen

Following the Republican debate in New Hampshire tonight, Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement:

“Tonight’s Republican debate was a reminder that we’ve been down this road of failed economic policies and proposals before. The economic recession in America wasn’t caused by bad luck; it was caused by bad Republican policies. But the Republican candidates are doubling down on the same flawed policies that led to the loss of 3.6 million jobs in the final months of 2008 and gravely affected middle class families across America.

And if those policies weren't bad enough, we heard support tonight for policies as extreme as ending Medicare and privatizing Social Security - policies the American people have rejected over and over again.

The debate tonight put into stark relief the contrast between the Republican presidential candidates and President Obama. Republicans want to roll back the protections President Obama put in place to make sure another financial crisis of the magnitude we saw in 2008 could not happen again. President Obama is making the tough decisions to get our country going in the right direction, has taken our economy from job losses to 15 straight months of job gains, cut taxes 26 times, and focused like a laser on getting the middle class back on its feet while those campaigning to replace him have failed to show they can lead on these issues.

Under Mitt Romney’s leadership Massachusetts was 47th out of 50 states in job creation. And thanks to Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota was left with a $6.2 billion projected deficit. The fact is, when it comes to economic leadership, the Republicans have nothing to brag about. This isn’t what the American people want. They want to see progress that works for them. Tonight we were reminded that Republican candidates have nothing to offer but the failed policies the American people have already rejected.”

Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Tim Pawlenty wants to impose “misguided and wrongheaded policies”

Today, in his first major economic speech as a presidential candidate, Tim Pawlenty laid out his vision for the country's economy. He proposes cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans and slashing the tax rate for corporations from 35 percent to 15 percent—a move that would explode the national deficit and hurt America's seniors and working families most of all.

In response, Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement:

Tim Pawlenty's plan to extend and expand the Bush tax cuts, deeply slashing taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans and corporate America and sending our deficit soaring even higher, is not an economic plan—it's a prescription for economic disaster that would fall squarely on the backs of seniors and working families. Mr. Pawlenty would take the Republican policies of the last decade, which exploded our deficit and debt and nearly sank our economy into a second Great Depression, and inject them with steroids.

Of course, perhaps no one should be surprised that Mr. Pawlenty, who left the state of Minnesota with a massive budget deficit, is now proposing to explode the deficit at the federal level. Tim Pawlenty left the people of Minnesota with a budget and economic nightmare. When Tim Pawlenty left the governor's office, middle-class families and small-business owners were paying higher property tax bills, college students were paying more for tuition, and at the same time funding for special education and services to seniors had been slashed. Even after raising taxes on hardworking Minnesotans and slashing vital services, Mr. Pawlenty left the state saddled with an historic $6.2 billion projected deficit.

On budget and fiscal matters Tim Pawlenty failed the people of Minnesota, and now he wants to impose such misguided and wrongheaded policies on the rest of us. No thank you.

Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s on Gov. Pawlenty’s Support to End Medicare as We Know it

By Josh Cohen

Today, former governor and current Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said he would sign the Republican plan to end Medicare as we know into law if elected president. In response, Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said:

“Just two days after the people of New York’s solidly Republican 26th Congressional District roundly rejected the Republican plan for ending Medicare, Governor Pawlenty said that he would sign such a plan into law – a plan even Newt Gingrich called ‘radical.’

Governor Pawlenty has ducked questions of his support for the Ryan plan since joining the campaign – but now it’s clear that he would ignore the wishes of the American people and the best interests of this nation and its seniors in order to win the approval of the far right. Governor Pawlenty may have passed his party’s primary litmus test by voicing his approval of a plan to end Medicare – but he has failed a critical leadership test.

If he can’t stand up to the far right of his party on issues as central to Americans’ well-being as Medicare, how does he expect us to believe he would exercise independent, reasoned judgment as president? It’s clear that if Governor Pawlenty were elected president he would embrace far-right Republican policies, piling additional burdens on America’s seniors, young people, and working families in order to provide additional benefits to big oil and the wealthiest few.”

Tim Pawlenty: the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing…Except the Truth

By Josh Cohen

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced his candidacy yesterday for president with the promise to tell the “truth.” Ironically, Mr. Pawlenty’s promise didn’t even make it beyond his announcement itself.

But, given his record as governor, “truth” is never something that’s come naturally. Mr. Pawlenty left Minnesota with a record deficit, higher taxes, and crumbling education and health care systems, and still refuses to level with voters about those facts on the ground.

Here’s a snapshot of Tim Pawlenty’s track record of taking liberties with the truth:

Associated Press. “FACT CHECK: Not the whole truth in Pawlenty claims.” "Truth" was Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's buzzword Monday when he announced his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He said he will tell the truth about hard choices facing the nation while others — President Barack Obama notably among them — do not. A parsing of Pawlenty's opening-day statements shows they were not the whole truth. Here is a sampling of his claims Monday and how they compare with the facts.

National Journal. “Is Pawlenty Telling the Truth About His Record?” Tim Pawlenty, truth teller or truth seller? The newly official GOP presidential candidate said the word “truth’’ no less than 16 times in his much-ballyhooed Monday announcement speech in Iowa titled “A Time for Truth.’’ Pawlenty’s self-portrait of a tough-love, eat-your-vegetables candidate looks like an effort to contrast himself with President Obama, whom he characterizes as a typical style-over-substance politician, as well as Republican rivals such as Mitt Romney, who has tried to finesse his health care record to appease conservatives, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, a fellow Minnesotan who has been guilty of rhetorical overreach more than once.

Washington Post. “Republican presidential candidate Pawlenty bends his truth-telling.” It was Tim Pawlenty’s moment of truth. Actually, several moments of truth …. In a phone interview with Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey, he promised “a serious, tell-the-truth, courageous message.” And in Des Moines, Pawlenty delivered an announcement speech, “A Time for Truth,” that contained 16 instances of the word “truth” in the prepared text. But just an hour after unburdening himself of these truths in Iowa, the candidate went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and told a bit of a fib.

Think Progress.“FACT CHECK: Pawlenty’s ‘Truth’ Campaign Is Already Littered With Lies.” “I am going to tell you the truth. The truth is, Washington’s broken,” Pawlenty declared. “It’s time for new leadership. It’s time for a new approach. And, it’s time for America’s president – and anyone who wants to be president – to look you in the eye and tell you the truth.” From there, Pawlenty preceded to list various “truths” about the state of the nation, many of which appear — on closer examination — to be either completely untrue or grossly exaggerated.