OBAMA’S POLITICAL SPEECH MARKS GOP CANDIDATES’ TIME TO OWN THE JOBS & ECONOMY DEBATE

September 8, 2011

TO: REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES
FROM: NRCC CHAIRMAN PETE SESSIONS
DATE: SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
SUBJECT: OBAMA’S POLITICAL SPEECH MARKS GOP CANDIDATES’ TIME TO OWN THE JOBS & ECONOMY DEBATE

Welcome to the 2012 political environment. President Obama is ringing the opening 2012 election bell with a political speech to Congress aimed at salvaging a sinking presidency.

What started off as a ploy to upstage his Republican rivals will turn out to be little more than a political stump speech before a joint session of Congress. If a sea of ominous polling is any clue, President Obama’s latest pivot to jobs is a desperate attempt to save his own. Forced to confront a referendum election on jobs and the economy, President Obama and his Democrat party will find Republicans challenging them at every turn.

The top of the ticket will drive the 2012 election, and a politically-toxic President is now the Democrats’ roadblock to retaking the Majority. The Republican pathway to victory in 2012 is holding President Obama and his Congressional Democrats accountable for every job-destroying policy that stands in the way of Americans finding work and providing for their families.

A BAD ECONOMY WORSE
President Obama has made a bad economy worse. This fundamental fact will headline the 2012 election. Instead of hope and change, President Obama has given the American people the longest economic downturn since the Great Depression:

• 2.5 Million net jobs lost since President Obama took office
• 14 Million Americans still unemployed – a total larger than the individual populations of 46 states
• Over $4 Trillion added to the national debt
• Over 7,000 new regulatory rules finalized in 2009 and 2010

The American people will not buy that President Obama is serious about job creation when his agenda includes ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, job-destroying tax increases and debt-driven spending sprees.

The American people will not buy that President Obama is serious about job creation when he has proposed over 4,200 new regulatory rules, including over 200 regulations that will cost over $100 million annually. In a telling admission of job-destroying regulations, President Obama withdrew his most costly ozone regulations just in time to face Congress as a savior for jobs. As the Wall Street Journal notes,

This decision, though helpful, won’t itself revive the economy. What it shows is that the Presidency itself holds vast authority to execute revision or repeal of the many job-stifling regulatory impositions this Administration has undertaken. We suspect that if … instead of proposing more tax-credit bandages Mr. Obama read off a long list of regulatory decisions like this, the market and the economy would head north. (Editorial, “Obama in the O-zone,” Wall Street Journal, 9/2/2011)

And the American people will not buy that Democrats are serious about job creation when Harry Reid and his Senate Democrats refuse to consider at least nine jobs bills that House Republicans have already passed this Congress. Republicans must hold the line of accountability and keep asking, “Where are the jobs?”

ZERO FOR ZERO
In a stroke of irony, the August employment report pre-empted President Obama’s jobs speech with the truth about his agenda: no job growth. Not since 1945 has America’s economy faced a monthly net job change of zero. Notably, President Obama had zero to say about zero new jobs, opting instead to head out of town for a weekend at Camp David.

“It’s rare that President Obama doesn’t make some sort of statement on the one day each month that the jobs report comes out, but that’s what happened today. … Obama’s silence also marks another PR change: the end of the talking point that goes something like, ‘the Xth month in a row of job growth in the private sector.’” (Matt Negrin, “This Time, Obama Skips a Statement,” Politico, 9/2/2011)

Even if President Obama didn’t want to rain on his own parade before Congress, the American people deserve a leader who demonstrates that he understands what it takes to create jobs. But with no experience in creating jobs, President Obama defaults to his status quo of more spending for more government.

DOUBLING DOWN ON FAILURE
President Obama is using his political stump speech before Congress to double-down on failed policies. Despite the fact that the trillion-dollar Stimulus failed to keep unemployment at or below 8 percent as promised and turn around our economy, the Obama Administration is calling for even more stimulus spending for “shovel-ready” jobs like roads and bridges.

“Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. economy needed more stimulus to get it moving, putting in a plug for government intervention shortly before the White House unveils new proposals to boost job growth. … ‘I think the economy does need more stimulus,’ Biden said… ‘Everybody says we should’ve (had)…a bigger stimulus package. Yeah, we should’ve. I was pushing (for) it,’ he said.” (Jeff Mason, “Biden Says U.S. Needs More Stimulus, Businesses Mad at S&P,” Reuters, 8/26/2011)

More of the same will buy President Obama the same fate at the polls as many former House Democrats last election. 63 defeated or exiting Democrats last cycle could not escape their Stimulus support, and neither will President Obama and Democrats this cycle. Democrats cannot ignore the debt crisis that the Stimulus helped create, and Republicans will stand with American voters to end Democrats’ debt-driven spending binges.

POLITICALLY TOXIC
The once rock star figure of the Democrat party is now an alarming political liability for House Democrats. In August, Gallup polling pegged President Obama’s approval rating at a new low – just 38 percent – while 55 percent disapprove of President Obama (Gallup tracking poll, 08/25-27/2011). Driving this dissatisfaction is the fact that President Obama has made a bad economy worse. By a margin of 2-1, Americans now say that President Obama’s policies are “making the economy worse rather than better” (Washington Post-ABC News poll, 8/29-9/1).

Now President Obama’s electability is in question as swing state voters revolt over his wildly unpopular tax, borrow, spend and regulate policies. So far, President Obama’s approval rating has measured upside down in 13 swing or Democrat-leaning states that he won in 2008. More voters disapprove of President Obama than approve in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Wisconsin, New York and New Jersey.

It’s been a tough summer for swing-district Democrats seeking reelection in 2012 with a president at the top of the ticket whose approval ratings are in the weeds. As these members begin to focus on their reelection bids after Labor Day, they are increasingly calculating how close is too close to an unpopular President Obama. (Alex Roarty and Beth Reinhard, “Democrats Distancing Themselves From Obama,” National Journal, 9/1/11)

Every Democrat Member must confront the question: Will they endorse a wildly unpopular President whose job-destroying agenda they have rubberstamped?

THE REPUBLICAN WILL TO WIN
The American people not only reject Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, but more voters want Republican leadership in Congress. According to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (8/27-8/31), a record number of Americans now prefer a Congress controlled by Republicans than a Congress controlled by Democrats (47 percent to 41 percent), up 3-points since June.

Why? The American people are seeing a Republican House that is willing to stand up and fight for job creation, spending cuts, debt reduction, lower taxes, fewer regulations and economic freedom for our nation to succeed.

As a first step, Republicans have cut more than $50 Billion in spending in fiscal year 2011 alone. Republicans held the line with President Obama and sent him over $2 Trillion in spending cuts to reduce the debt instead of another blank check. Republicans have voted to reduce tax burdens on job-creators. This fall, Republicans are focused on rolling back the top 10 job-destroying regulations. And Republicans will not stop working to ensure that the American Dream is alive for future generations.

Every Republican candidate must sell this fight. Our mission is American jobs, and we must not allow Democrat political games to divert our singular focus on the real issue facing our nation. Keep staying on offense with the will to win in 2012.

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