Conservatives Draft Manifesto to Help Republicans Attract Middle-Class Voters

[applegrove]

Conservatives Draft Manifesto to Help Republicans Attract Middle-Class Voters

By JONATHAN MARTIN at the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/us/politics/conservatives-draft-manifesto-to-help-republicans-attract-middle-class-voters.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

"SNIP...................


WASHINGTON — Hoping to push their agenda ahead of the presidential election, a group of prominent conservatives has devised a 121-page policy manifesto aimed at giving the Republican Party a message that will attract some of the middle-class voters the party lost in recent White House races.

The document, to be unveiled Thursday, features eight essays with proposals on issues including health care, taxes and education. The authors hope the book will help Republicans address the economic anxieties of Americans and nudge the party from its most polarizing positions and constant confrontations with President Obama.

....

The set of proposals in the manifesto, titled “Room to Grow: Conservative Reforms for a Limited Government and a Thriving Middle Class,” address domestic matters exclusively; there is no mention of foreign policy or any discussion of immigration, a divisive issue within the Republican Party.

Instead, the authors lay out a set of ideas that they hope elected officials and candidates can make their own: replacing the new health law with tax credits for those who do not receive employer-based coverage; a tax overhaul that benefits middle-class parents; and changes to the student loan system.



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[applegrove]

1. They'll include Elizabeth Warren's refinancing of student loans I bet.

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. Are you kidding....what they will propose is to get govt out of the Student Loan business

and back to the Big Banks where it belongs...

[applegrove]

3. Well they'll propose private refinancing of student loans.

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. Yep!

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. In short, warmed over Republican tripe

Old junk

[Zambero]

6. Manifesto? Have they forgotten that post-2012 autopsy report?

They wondered what went wrong in 2012. They didn't win the Senate. They didn't elect Romney. They ordered up an analysis indicating what it might take to win the confidence of voters. They gave it a quick read, then threw it aside and proceeded to revert back to the same tired policy positions and hard right stance on virtually every issue that matters. For good measure they've blocked immigration reform the passage of which which was a key component of the "autopsy". So absent any evidence that the party is willing to move anywhere close to the political mainstream, the solution is wordsmithing in the form of a "Manifesto", with emphasis on "limited government" (code speak for Paul Ryanesque cuts to Medicare and Social Security coupled with drastic reductions to the top tax rate).

[Springslips]

7. They want to take ACA insurence away

And replace it with a Tax credit?