Donald Trump has a new ad airing in Florida targeting the economy. However, as with everything else Trump does and says, all is not as it seems.
As Steve Benen points out, it pays to read the fine print, because Trump's ad touts a tax plan he actually doesn't support:
By and large, it’s pretty much a boilerplate message we’d expect from any GOP candidate in any election cycle, effectively arguing, “Democrats will raise taxes; I’ll cut them; and tax cuts create prosperity.” It’s nothing Americans haven’t heard before.
But what I found notable about the ad was the fine print.
To the Trump campaign’s credit, the commercial includes footnotes of sorts for many of its core claims. For example, at the 15-second mark, when the narrator says “working families get tax relief” in Trump’s America, there’s small text at the bottom that reads, “A Pro-Growth Tax Code For All Americans, GOP: A Better Way, 6/24/16.”
Why does that matter? Because “A Pro-Growth Tax Code For All Americans, GOP: A Better Way, 6/24/16” is House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) tax plan, not Donald Trump’s. They’re actually pretty different, and include their own marginal rates, which makes it odd for Trump to cite the House GOP’s plan as if it were his own.
A couple of seconds later, the same ad includes fine print that reads, “ ‘Details and analysis of the 2016 House Republican Tax Reform Plan,’ Tax Foundation, 7/15/16.” And while I’d take issue with the center-right Tax Foundation’s analysis of Ryan’s plan, the point is, again, that Trump has a different plan.
At the 19-second mark, note that the fine print reads, “ ‘Details and analysis of Donald Trump’s Tax Plan, Tax Foundation, 9/29/15.” And while that’s certainly closer to being applicable, what the ad doesn’t mention is that Trump has since abandoned that tax plan, unveiling a new blueprint three weeks ago.
Benen goes on to point out that while the GOP's tax plan and the Trump tax plan have very different rates, camp Trump doesn't seem to understand that.
Or perhaps they just don't care as long as the voters don't understand that either?
If giving speeches filled with empty rhetoric were all that were required to be a great Senator, Marco Rubio would be qualified. As it is, this is about all Rubio is known for: Giving speeches. Speeches which aren't even of the quality equal to those of the motivational speaker roadshow circuit.
No, these are policy speeches Rubio preaches to a choir of only receptive audiences. Bad policy speeches, and Rubio spends nearly all of his time giving them.
Today's example was his "economic vision," but if you paid attention, you recognized that Rubio was really speaking of Mitt Romney's economic vision. The one that lost him the 2012 election.
(Enterprise Florida Rebranding Courtesy of The Highest Bidder In...Tennessee)
What with all of Rick Scott's promises of job creation and a booming Florida economy since he first ran, you would think after three plus years under Gov. Wonderful's rule, our unemployment rate would be rock bottom and our economy would be better than leading only two other states, Wyoming and Alaska. Hardly the rainbows and unicorns we were promised.
He certainly wants us to believe he's laser focused on jobs, because no matter what question he's asked, and no matter what the issue, be it health care, or legalizing discrimination in Arizona, his answer is always the same: I'm focused on bringing jobs to our state.
He also would have us believe that all his taxpayer funded vacations travels to Spain, the UK, Brazil, Israel, Colombia, Canada, Chile and Paris, or what he calls "trade missions" are really paying off. The only problem is that, for most of those trade missions, we hear a lot about the missions, but not so much the "trade." Have we gotten an abundance of jobs in return for our pricey trade mission investments? Hardly.
When Rick Scott's claims of job creation weren't backed up by actual numbers, he just revised the math. He also ignored the fact that many of the jobs that were created were low paying jobs, and jobs likely without benefits, thanks to his corporate friendly policies. Many workers in Florida are barred from taking paid sick days, just for one example, while others were moved into part-time positions in order to avoid providing health care and other benefits. With more low paying jobs, there are more who could qualify for Medicaid, but Scott and the legislature said "no" to that too. Finally, for those who have lost their jobs altogether, Scott's botched unemployment website has made it nearly impossible to get benefits.
Yet Rick Scott chooses to hide all those factors in a little box, wrap them up, and put a "jobs and economy savior" bow on it.
As we head off to join family and friends this holiday to give thanks for all that we have, we also owe thanks to Republicans and their policies. Because of them, there are a lot more of those who will have less this Thanksgiving. The poor are rarely acknowledged, the middle class is gone, and chances are the next to go will be the "upper" middle class, because the one thing the GOP refuses to give up are little or no taxes for the rich. They can whine and complain about government spending and entitlements all they want, but those are merely empty words and they know it. More and more of us have to pay the price to keep the richest among us (including the millionaires in the House and the Senate) in the manner to which they've become accustomed. Instead, they expect everyday Americans to give up a living wage, health care, and safety nets, while the country and its infrastructure deteriorates.
Today U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) spoke out against the Republican's latest version of their budget, which she says puts jobs at risk and undermines economic success while further cutting investments in infrastructure, education and research.
See a full transcript below.
Transcript:
Colleagues, this Republican Budget should come with a warning label: American jobs at risk, because the Republican budget will lead to large job losses and harm economic growth just at the time when the economy is improving for so many of our neighbors and businesses back home. But Republicans continue to turn a blind eye to the economic fact that more people working across America and lower unemployment reduce the deficit.
Economists – including the Congressional Budget Office Director Elmendorf, right here in this room – advised that putting Americans back to work is the fastest and most effective way to reduce the debt and deficit. So it is inexplicable that Republicans propose to eliminate jobs in construction, in education, in scientific research and heap the burden on middle class families. This is a very poor reading of the situation that American families are in today, and it’s a capitulation to the Tea Party.
The Republican budget undermines what makes America great, what makes America strong, like education, the ability to attend college, research and development, and clean energy. These are the keys to economic growth and opportunity, but don’t hand those keys to Republicans in Congress because they will just throw them out.
Experts predict that this Republican budget will result in 2 million fewer American jobs next year alone, and that is on top of the 750,000 jobs lost due to the sequester that the Republicans will not replace.
American families and businesses still face headwinds in this economic recovery. Unemployment remains unacceptably high so they have to be scratching their heads on why the Republicans propose a budget that contracts jobs and economic growth.
Here are a few examples: This Republican budget slashes the ability of our students to attend college. It eliminates the Pell grant for over a million students, and provides a harsh squeeze to millions and millions more. We know the key to a good job and an opportunity is that all-important college degree, and yet the Republicans turned a blind eye to the fact that college costs continue to escalate, they’re going to say Pell grants are much harder to come by in America.
Two, the number of new grants and higher-wage jobs, through the National Institutes of Health research, shrink and fade under the Republican budget. This will curtail research in Alzheimer’s, Cancer, and AIDS. I know back home at the University of South Florida, the Moffitt Cancer Center, we rely on those seed dollars for jobs; yes, at the University and at the Cancer Center, but for small businesses that are our partners in growth and innovation.
Number three, you know the heart of American ingenuity over our history has been in manufacturing: the ability to build bridges, roads, railroads, and communities. It attracts private investment. The government dollars that we provide for transportation and infrastructure are multiplied exponentially – it attracts private investment. Yet, in the face of America’s desire right now to build and America’s desire to grow, Republicans cut such investments by 32 percent.
Colleagues, the Republican budget is not consistent with American values. It is not fiscally responsibly. It puts American jobs at risk. It ignores the fact that job creation and economic growth are the most effective ways to reduce the debt and the deficit. It is a plan for economic weakness. It is a receding vision of American greatness in education, scientific research and infrastructure. It is poor public policy and a harsh vision for our great country. I yield back to my colleague.
President Obama held a press conference this morning after meeting with Congressional leaders to talk about his plans to move the country forward in light of the severe budget cuts that will start to take effect today.
In Florida, you can thank these House Republicans (phone numbers here) for turning their backs on everyday Floridians and the country so they can protect millionaires and billionaires from having to pay their fair share of taxes.
To see how the sequester will hurt Florida, and what their constituents will have to give up so the wealthy (yes, many of whom are members listed below) can continue to pay less in taxes, see this earlier post.
Put this story in the ole' "You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up" file.
Rick Scott is back to his old tricks again after pretending to be human for a brief moment last week when he succumbed to the reality of accepting the Medicaid expansion, as if it were all his idea. (Psst, Scott. No one bought it. Sorry.)
With the John Boehner/Republican sequester looming this week, Scott was a little late (isn't he always?) to jump on the GOP's "blame Obama bandwagon" which was debunked long ago. The people aren't stupid, and the polls are in, but then Scott and the Republicans don't fancy facts, polls, or reality, so we shouldn't be too surprised.
Scott loved to lecture the President on health care reform back in the day, as if the President had just fallen off the proverbial turnip truck and with all the authority of an expert on the business of Medicare fraud health care. As we saw last year, not to mention last week, that didn't work out so well for Rick Scott.
Well, now the old Rick Scott is back, I guess having recovered from the sadness of having to let the poor gain access to health care, and he's now lecturing President Obama on....wait for it......job losses.
The federal government’s sequester budget cuts due to take effect Friday will cause thousands of Floridians to lose their jobs, Gov. Rick Scott told President Barack Obama in a letter Wednesday.
Scott warned that Florida’s numerous military installations and its defense industry would be severely impacted by the broad, automatic budget cuts. The reductions, totaling $85 billion, would slash defense and domestic spending, and could affect everything from commercial flights to meat inspections.
Memo to Scott: Yeah......President Obama has kind of been going around the country saying this for about a week now, but he was saying it long before that. In fact, some of us have even written about what the Republican's sequester will mean for Florida. Really! We got our information from fact sheets posted on the White House website. But I know you Republicans like to pretend the President doesn't "have a plan" for anything. I also know that when you're desperate, you go directly to those non-existent plans, lift the information from them, and then go out in public and use them as if they're something you just pulled out of your brilliant.....intellect. (See: Marco Rubio, immigration. See also: Your own self, Medicaid. Oh, and that would be the actual Medicaid facts and numbers, not the ones you made up.)
But since it makes you feel better to fire off an angry letter to tell the President what he already knows, by all means, carry on:
"If your administration fails to do its job to responsibly manage the budget, thousands of Floridians will lose their jobs under sequestration," Scott wrote (emphasis his).
That sound you hear is the collective laughter of Floridians everywhere over the sheer hypocrisy of that statement. Scott knows "failure to do one's job" and causing "job losses." He's somewhat of a connoisseur of misery and an expert at cutting jobs and anything else that doesn't favor corporations and his rich buddies. If you have any doubts, watch his press conference on Medicaid last week. Show me a person who may not die without health care now, and I'll show you a former health care businessman doing a really bad impression of a sad clown.
Floridians laugh at Scott's hypocrisy. They have to laugh to keep from crying, because they've had plenty of practice and been living under Scott's version of a "sequester" due to cutbacks for a couple years.
I can see it now, Scott will attempt to tie some of the damage he's done to Florida since he was elected to any consequences of the Republican's sequester plans if they come to pass, and try to blame Obama. Again. Remember all those jobs and surplus money that came with Florida's high-speed rail project? Oh, wait....
Yeah, good luck with that. In spite of all his efforts to the contrary, the actual policies of the most despised governor in the history of governors who are despised (and yes, even counting the one who mandates vaginal probes) are very well documented and burned into the memories of those suffering because of them.
With the March 1 deadline fast approaching for the sequester that Republicans wanted and used as a bargaining chip in exchange for not crashing the economy in the debt ceiling fight, Republicans are trying to pin the blame on anyone but themselves in spite of, well, facts. Everyone knows how the GOP is on facts these days.
They don't matter.
In keeping with that magical thinking policy, today Governor Rick Scott, being forced to face reality for the second time in a week, issued a statement in order to point the finger of blame in the general direction of Washington:
“Sequestration means the Obama Administration and Congress failed to do their job to manage the budget. As thousands of Floridians lose their jobs, the Obama Administration and Congress are getting paid for not doing theirs. That’s just wrong.
“The impacts on Florida’s military installations and defense industries will be severe under the meat hammer of sequestration. Our immediate concerns include dramatic reductions to our National Guard, which threatens our ability to respond to wildfires this spring and hurricanes this summer.
“Now is the time for leadership. It is critical for all national leaders to find a way forward that will not have unwarranted, unnecessary impacts on both our economic and our national security.”
Aside from the standard boilerplate that everything bad that happens is President Obama's fault, notice Scott blames "Congress" in general. If Scott were really serious about calling out "Congress," he would be on the phone with Florida Republicans urging them to stop playing their "elementary school game of ‘chicken.’ " as he put it. But of course he won't do that.
Here is how Republicans voted on the blackmaildebt ceiling. Only five Republicans from Florida voted "no." The rest were just fine with it, even though they knew the consequences of the bargaining chip they used, the sequester, would be dire for their constituents if it came to pass.
So here we are.
While they try their hardest to place the blame on President Obama, here are the facts. Republicans want this sequester as much as they want to have it both ways, but their logic is laughable. They've used every excuse they can come up with, and none of them make sense, especially when you compare them.
The cuts are "horrible!" The end of the world as we know it! Yet they could stop them easily, and so far they aren't budging. Some have claimed this is a trap set for them by President Obama. By that logic, why would they willingly walk into it then? Again, because they want them.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he got "98 percent" of what he wanted in the final deal to raise the debt ceiling.
"When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the White House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy," Boehner said in an interview with CBS News on Monday evening.
The final vote to give Boehner that 98% of what he wanted was 269-161, with 174 Republicans backing the bill. Only sixty-six Republicans voted against it.
Flying in the face of logic with their other excuses, some have also said the equivalent of "Meh! It's just not going got be a big deal." That's because, again, Republicans want the sequester. They're perfectly happy to have austerity measures in place that will cut even more programs for the poor, and hurt the average American further than they have already, all to protect their rich friends and their corporate bosses. They'll cut anything to avoid raising taxes on the wealthiest who pay very little as it is now. This is what they want. It falls in line with the ideology of the conservative wing of their party, something which Joy-Ann Reid explains in more detail here.
Rick Scott is of course one of those ideologues. But he's also a governor who is crashing in the polls, faces reelection, and is now facing the consequences of accepting reality and Medicaid expansion. The Tea Party and the crazy wing of the GOP have voiced their dismay with that choice he made last week. By generalizing the blame, he seeks to have it both ways.
Good luck with that.
If the sequester Republicans want goes through, make no mistake, it will hurt Floridians, and our Florida Republican Congressmen and women who voted for it know this. Here are some of the ways Floridians will get hurt by their actions:
Statewide impacts: There will be even more cuts in education, the military, law enforcement, clean air and water protection, work study jobs and Head Start programs. Funding will be cut in these areas: vaccinations for children, meal programs for seniors, other public health programs, and protection from domestic violence. These are just some of the statewide cuts. For a more detailed list of these, along with severe national impacts, see the report here.
Americans who have already paid dearly for wars that never should have happened thanks to Republicans, bailed out the banks when they nearly crashed the world economy, many whom were also hurt further during the process, are now being asked to make even more sacrifices so that a minute few of the wealthiest among us can gain even more wealth without having to pay their fair share in taxes.
Because the one thing Republicans stand firm against is raising taxes for the rich. Under any circumstances. For that they are willing to risk the nation's economy, while throwing seniors, children and every average American over the cliff. Not only are they not creating jobs, they aren't willing to pay those who have them fairly, and for those who don't, they plan even more cuts to unemployment.
For these reasons, and a few others of his own, Governor Rick Scott will never "make the call" to his fellow Republicans to avoid the sequester that will hurt all Floridians. He knows which side his bread is buttered on, and his party is slowly letting him churn for himself.
That's why Floridian will have to make the call to their Congressmen and women themselves and make their voices heard. We are now our own representatives, and we are the ones who will get hurt.
Republicans know that, and they just don't care. They have job security, and we're paying for it.
As Rick Scott sets out on his "Buying 2014 Voter Amnesia Tour" by throwing money at teachers and state workers, bragging about crunching the numbers for his latest budget, and why all those tax breaks for the so-called job creators are such a good thing, here's another number to keep in mind: "2."
That's where Florida falls on the "Terrible Ten" list just put out in a report from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). In this case, being number two in a top ten list is a bad thing. Well, unless you're incredibly wealthy. Like Scott and most of the Republicans in the legislature.
Florida ranks second only to Washington for tax systems tilted most heavily towards high earners. Yay!
