Why are Democrats better than Republicans for New Mexico?
(Click on a topic to learn more.)
JOBS & THE ECONOMY
What Are Democrats Doing? Since 1933, the six presidents who presided over the fastest job growth have all been Democrats. The average income of Americans would be more than double its current level if the economy had somehow grown at the Democratic rate for all of the past nine decades. Why? Two possible reasons: Democrats heed economic and historical lessons about what policies actually strengthen the economy; Republicans cling to theories like the magical power of tax cuts and deregulation. Democratic-leaning groups (like labor unions and civil-rights organizations) favor policies that lift broad-based economic growth; Republican-leaning groups (like the wealthy) favor policies that mostly shift income toward themselves. See informative charts and analyses here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/opinion/sunday/democrats-economy.html |
What Are Republicans Doing? Over the last four decades, Republican presidents have run up larger deficits than Democrats. Republicans cling to theories like the magical power of tax cuts and deregulation. Republican-leaning groups (like the wealthy) favor policies that mostly shift income toward themselves, so Republican economic policy since 1980 has revolved around a single policy: large tax cuts tilted toward the affluent. The evidence now overwhelmingly suggests that recent tax cuts have had only a modest effect on the economy. G.D.P. grew at virtually the same rate after the 2017 Trump tax cut as before it. The American economy has performed much better under Democratic administrations than Republican ones, over both the last few decades and the last century See informative charts and analyses here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/opinion/sunday/democrats-economy.html |
HEALTH CARE
What Democrats Are Doing: Democrats are the party that passed Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act and have been fighting to secure universal health care for the American people for generations. Since Biden became president, fewer Americans are uninsured than ever before. Healthcare.gov signups for insurance hit an all-time record in 2022. Four out of five people who sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act can find health care coverage for $10 a month or less because President Biden extended lower rates through the Inflation Reduction Act. |
What Republicans Are Doing: Millions of Americans would lose health care coverage, benefits and protections under congressional Republicans’ plans. Congressional Republicans have proposed:
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SOCIAL SECURITY
What Democrats Are Doing: Democrats believe a dignified retirement is central to the American Dream, and its foundation is built on two long-standing institutions charged with realizing that dream: Medicare and Social Security. These two institutions represent an unbreakable commitment to American workers, and for decades Democrats have fought to defend that commitment. President Biden proposes to boost average benefits across the board while putting Social Security on a long-term path to solvency by raising taxes on those who can easily afford it, who earn more than $400,000 a year. President Biden also proposes to raise benefits for vulnerable beneficiaries—including widows and widowers, low-wage workers, and long duration beneficiaries who may have exhausted all other assets. See also https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/the-issues/retirement-security/ and https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/biden-promise-tracker/promise/1586/expand-and-increase-social-security-benefits/ |
What Republicans Are Doing: Since 1980, Republicans, including Paul Ryan and Ron DeSantis, have tried to make deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare every time they thought there might be a political window of opportunity. President George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security. Here are some more recent examples:
See more here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/09/fact-sheet-congressional-republicans-many-proposals-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare-and-increase-prescription-drug-prices-and-health-care-premiums/ and https://time.com/6254832/republicans-sunset-social-security-medicare/ And https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/opinion/columnists/republicans-medicare-social-security.html |
DEMOCRACY
What Democrats are Doing: Our government and our elections are supposed to reflect the interests of the American people, not only the wealthiest few and the biggest corporations. Democrats fight to restore and protect Americans’ fundamental right to vote, reform the broken campaign finance system, strictly enforce ethics laws and improve transparency across the federal government in order to rebuild trust with the American people. See more: https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/restoring-and-strengthening-our-democracy/ |
What Republicans Are Doing: The GOP is full of politicians who don’t accept the 2020 election results and have not condemned the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Despite undemocratic representation in the Senate (California’s 39 million people and Wyoming’s 581,000 people both get two senators), Senate Republicans oppose reforming the filibuster that skews representation even more towards minority rule. In the last Congress, Republicans blocked two voting rights bills. In 2021, red state after red state enacted new voter suppression laws. Republicans pose a threat to our freedoms and a threat to democracy. See https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/yes-republicans-still-pose-a-threat-to-democracy.html and https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/senate-vote-on-voting-rights-bills-filibuster-rules-change.html and https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/checking-in-with-the-major-voter-suppression-laws/ |
ENVIRONMENT & PUBLIC LANDS
What Democrats Are Doing: Democrats are committed to curbing the effects of climate change, protecting America’s natural resources and ensuring the quality of our air, water, and land for current and future generations. Democrats believe public lands are owned by the public; they value wildlife and habitat conservation and promote land use by sportsmen, for outdoor recreation and for renewable energy. |
What Republicans Are Doing: Republicans did not present a platform in 2020 but the 2016 platform emphasized the market over environment protection and called for sweeping land transfers from public to private ownership. President Trump reversed the U.S. bipartisan record of protection and conservation of public lands by systematically undermining, degrading and attacking the laws that protect our public lands, the agencies that manage them and the resources these places safeguard for the American people. His administration opened up public lands to exploitation, removing, when they could, regulations for energy development on federal lands, particularly for oil and gas. See https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/democrats-and-the-gop-are-miles-apart-on-public-lands and https://www.britannica.com/explore/savingearth/democrats-and-the-gop-are-miles-apart-on-public-lands and https://e360.yale.edu/features/on-u-s-public-lands-can-biden-undo-what-trump-has-wrought |
CONGRESSIONAL PRIORITIES
What Democrats Are Doing: With an incredibly slim majority, Democrats in the first two years of President Biden’s term passed:
See https://www.dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc.cfm?doc_name=sr-110-2-25 and https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-inflation-reduction-act-will-save-families-thousands-of-dollars/ and https://democrats.org/news/reminder-every-single-republican-voted-against-lowering-costs-for-americans-3/ |
What Republicans Are Doing: Although a majority of Americans (58%) want this Republican-majority House of Representatives to prioritize lowering costs like groceries and gas, Republicans have proposed a national 30% sales tax on everything from groceries to gasoline. During their campaigns, Republicans talked about the border crisis and inflation but have done nothing to address either. Instead, they are running a three-ring circus of investigations, something only 14% of Americans say they want. See https://twitter.com/NavigatorSurvey/status/1613561386520436736/photo/1 and https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2023/2/11/23594706/house-republicans-investigations-biden-mccarthy-jordan and https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/one-republican-tax-plan-democrats-cant-wait-oppose-rcna66693 |