Monday, March 18, 2013

The GOP's Same Ole, Same Ole

From the Huff Po: The Republican National Committee (RNC) released its wide-ranging 'autopsy' report (RNC Growth and Opportunity Project).

The document includes market research from voter focus groups around the country. Asked to describe Republicans, they said that the Party is "scary," "narrow minded," and "out of touch" --- and that we were a Party of "stuffy old men.

"This is consistent with the findings of other post-election surveys," the report states.

Hours before the report was live, RNC Chair Reince Priebus leveled about the GOP's struggles in an interview on CBS' Face The Nation, telling host Bob Schieffer that the party did a "lousy job" of marketing itself..

Within the same CBS interview, Priebus revealed several proposed changes for the next election cycle. Among the possibilities being considered: a shorter presidential nominating calendar, fewer primary debates and a $10 million minority outreach program to promote the GOP brand in local communities."

Some of our favorite lines from the report: "The perception that the GOP does not care about people is doing great harm to the Party." It references "non-Republican ethnic groups." (Um, what's a "Republican ethnic group?")

A bit later the report refers to a group of people known as "ethnic conservatives." It does get a bit more specific later on. The GOP begins its analysis by identifying where its support is soft: "Hispanic, Asian and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Indian Americans, Native Americans, women, and youth."

In other words, most of America.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh dismissed the Republican National Committee report and argued instead that the party is not conservative enough.

"The Republican party lost because it's not conservative, it didn't get its base out," he said, adding, "People say they need to moderate their tone -- they don't."

In Other News...

The Usual Crony Capitalism: Federal agencies awarded $115.2 billion in no-bid contracts in fiscal year 2012, an 8.9 increase from $105.8 billion from 2009, according to government data. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon were top recipients of sole-source contracts. In 2009, contracts awarded without competition made up about 20 percent of total dollars awarded.

More Congressional Corruption: Thirty-two members of Congress dispensed more than $2 million in campaign funds to pay relatives' salaries during the 2012 election cycle, a USA TODAY analysis of the most recent campaign records shows. The campaign also underwrote 17 auto payments, totaling $32,700, Federal Election Commission records show.

Another Congressional Lobbyist: Former Montana U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg has become the co-chairman of a Washington, D.C.-based public-strategy firm, a job that he says will keep him involved in issues that he cares about. Mercury/Clark & Weinstock describes itself as a bipartisan government-relations firm that specializes in crisis communications, polling, issue ads and strategic communications. The firm also reported $7.65 million in lobbying income for 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Its clients included railroads, airlines, investment groups, various businesses and state and local governments.

The Tale of Two Congressional Budgets: House Democrats unveiled a 2014 budget proposal that includes new taxes and $200 billion in stimulus spending. That's about twice the level of stimulus spending that what was in the Senate Democratic budget.

The House Democratic budget, authored by Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), would raise $1.2 trillion in revenue over ten years by ending tax breaks for both corporations and individuals. The Senate Democrats asked for only $975 million in new taxes.

House Republicans have a budget authored by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would lower tax rates and cut spending by $5.7 trillion --- $4.6 trillion in spending cuts on top of the sequester cuts over ten years.

No comments:

Post a Comment