STRATEGIC MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Brad Woodhouse, President, Correct The Record
DATE: June 15, 2015
RE: Jeb Bush: More of the Same Extreme GOP Agenda
Today Jeb Bush will officially announce what we have known for over six months – he is running for President of the United States. While Jeb is trying to push himself as a Washington outsider and reformer, his positions on the issues shows us one thing: he is just like every other Republican contender.
Jeb may try to distinguish himself from the rest of the Republican hopefuls, but in reality he is just more of the same: Climate change denier? Check. Anti-minimum wage? Check. Anti-marriage equality? Check. Anti-affirmative action? Check. Anti-choice? Check. Anti-veterans benefits? Check. Pro-fossil fuels? Check. Pro-mandatory minimum sentencing? Check. Pro-Social Security privatization? Check. Pro-voting restrictions? Check. Anti-path to citizenship? Check.
We already know what a Bush presidency would look like. We’ve seen it twice before. Jeb’s agenda looks just like any other Republican agenda – out-of-touch, out-of-date, and wrong for America.
JEB BUSH: MORE OF THE SAME EXTREME GOP AGENDA
Economic Issues
Jeb Bush said his father was “wrong” to criticize Reagan’s trickle-down economics. “Jeb Bush defended Reaganomics on Tuesday, saying his father was wrong to criticize lower tax rates on income and capital gains during the 1980 presidential campaign. ‘There’s another example of Jeb having a disagreement with a family member I love a lot,’ Bush said, referring to himself, in an interview on Fox News. ‘He was wrong about that.’” [Bloomberg, 6/2/15]
Jeb Bush supported “his brother’s proposal to privatize portions of Social Security.” “Under President Bush, for example, oil companies are expected to have an easier time exploring for new oil reserves. Gov. Bush — and most Florida politicians — oppose any oil drilling off the coast of Florida. And though Jeb Bush agrees with his brother’s proposal to privatize portions of Social Security, they may disagree over timing because such a move could anger seniors, still a powerful voting force in Florida.” [Orlando Sentinel, 1/21/01]
Jeb Bush called for an end to the federal minimum wage. “We need to leave it to the private sector. I think state minimum wages are fine. The federal government shouldn’t be doing this. This is one of those poll-driven deals. It polls well, I’m sure – I haven’t looked at the polling, but I’m sure on the surface without any conversation, without any digging into it people say, ‘Yea, everybody’s wages should be up.’ And in the case of Wal-Mart they have raised wages because of supply and demand and that’s good.” [MSNBC, 3/18/15]
Jeb Bush opposed bailing out the automotive industry. “Bush said that until the hearing, he hadn’t been asked his opinion on the automotive bailout or the bank bailouts. He told the committee he didn’t support the auto bailout — what he describes as ‘a form of capitalism where the government intervenes in a very muscular kind of way.’ The position puts him in line with Romney.” [Tampa Bay Times, 6/1/12]
Social Issues
As governor, Jeb Bush engaged in anti-choice activism that “shocked some state officials who believed he was reaching beyond the powers of his office.” “Jeb, meanwhile, declared in 2003 that he was ‘probably the most pro-life governor in modern times.’ As governor, Bush signed a law to create ‘Choose Life’ license plates in Florida, the proceeds from which flow to anti-abortion advocacy organizations. He also aggressively intervened in two high-profile cases to prevent a mentally disabled rape victim and a 13-year-old girl from being able to have abortions. In the former case, involving a 22-year-old rape victim who was both pregnant and developmentally disabled, Bush asked a court to appoint a guardian to represent the woman’s fetus. […] In 2005, Bush fought to prevent a pregnant 13-year-old girl, who was a ward of the state, from having an abortion. He was overruled by a judge, and CNN later reported that Bush’s ‘abortion activism shocked some state officials who believed he was reaching beyond the powers of his office.’” [Huffington Post, 3/25/15]
In the 1994 gubernatorial campaign, Jeb Bush insisted that women should “find a husband” as an alternative to welfare. “If people are mentally and physically able to work, they should be able to do so within a two-year period. They should be able to get their life together and find a husband, find a job, find other alternatives in terms of private charity or a combination of all three,” Bush said. [CNN, 6/11/15]
Jeb Bush argued that public humiliation would help prevent unwed mothers from engaging in irresponsible behavior. “One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame,” Bush wrote. “Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out-of-wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful.” [CNN, 6/11/15]
Jeb Bush: “What’s the Paycheck Fairness Act?” According to The Hill, “‘What’s the Paycheck Fairness Act?’ Bush asked, in an exchange captured by the liberal opposition research outfit American Bridge. Once the man he was speaking with defined it as a bill that would ensure that women get ‘equal pay for equal work,’ Bush took issue with his phrasing. ‘Equal pay for the same work, not for equal work — I think that’s the problem with it. I think there’s a definition issue,’ he said, before declining to say whether or not he thought Land should support the legislation.” [The Hill, 10/15/14]
Jeb Bush “rejected” the characterization that he was a “gay-friendly Republican.” “If Bush runs for president, some of his closest aides will be individuals who are strong public supporters of legalizing same-sex marriage. The hires, reported BuzzFeed, led to some chatter among Republicans that Bush could position himself as ‘the gay-friendly Republican in the 2016 field.’ Bush, however, rejected that characterization Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference during his conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity. ‘No. I believe in traditional marriage,’ said Bush when Hannity asked him whether he’s changing his position on the issue.” [Huffington Post, 2/27/15]
Jeb Bush supported the Indiana discrimination law, but later changed his position after facing criticism. “Anti-discrimination activists and gay rights groups welcomed a lightning evolution by Jeb Bush, this week on a controversial law passed in Indiana last week that opponents said would have made it easier for businesses to discriminate against LGBT employees and customers. On Monday, Bush praised the law as signed by Indiana’s governor, Mike Pence. On Wednesday, the former Florida governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate drew back sharply in his approbation, conceding only that the law would ‘be in the right place’ by the end of the week, after an anticipated fix by the Indiana legislature.” [Guardian,4/2/15]
Healthcare
Jeb Bush called the Affordable Care Act “flawed to its core.” “Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday that President Barack Obama’s health care law ‘is flawed to its core’ and will be a ‘big problem’ for Democrats heading into the 2014 elections. ‘I don’t think it will work,’ Bush said of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. Bush added, ‘If the objective is, don’t worry about the budget, we’ll just finance it the same way we’re financing our deficits right now, build a bigger debt, you could see this thing surviving,’ he said. ‘But it will have failed what the promises were. It will have failed the American people. And I don’t think it will bend the cost curve.’” [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 11/4/13]
Jeb Bush supported transforming veterans’ health care into a voucher system. “Mr. Bush, sitting in front of an untouched breakfast at an IHOP in Colorado Springs, told a group of veterans that he favors transferring some elements of veterans’ care to private hospitals from government-run Veterans Affairs facilities. ‘This is where I think empowering people with the equivalent of a voucher that gives you the same economic benefit of receiving care inside of a clinic or a hospital,’ Mr. Bush said in a video of the public event recorded by the Democratic firm American Bridge. ‘If you had a chance to go to another place where the money followed the patient, it would give the veterans — you wouldn’t have these kind of hostile reactions, my job is protected for life, don’t mess with it.’” [Wall Street Journal, 4/8/15]
Environmental Issues
Jeb Bush said he was “tired” of the idea that “science has decided” that climate change is manmade. “It is not unanimous among scientists that it is disproportionately manmade. What I get a little tired of on the left is this idea that somehow science has decided all this so you can’t have a view.” [Huffington Post, 8/24/11]
Jeb Bush criticized the Obama administration for seeking “to lessen the use of coal.” “He criticized the Obama administration’s energy strategy that seeks to lessen the use of coal. ‘For some odd reason, this president has a problem with the oil and gas sector,’ Bush said. ‘You can’t stop innovation, by the way, you can stall it, you can make it more complicated.’” [Bloomberg, 4/7/15]
Civil Rights
Jeb Bush: “States should be allowed to protect the integrity of the franchise with voter identification laws.” In his book, Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, Jeb Bush wrote, “Finally, states should be allowed to protect the integrity of the franchise with voter identification laws, which are supported by a large majority of Americans, including Hispanics. So long as states make it simple for citizens to obtain such forms of identification, they should have the latitude to require such identification for voting or to secure welfare benefits.” [Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, pg. 38-39, 2013]
Jeb Bush established a Florida statute that expanded mandatory minimum sentences and included “death” as a guideline for severe drug offenses. “Create mandatory prison sentences for persons convicted of drug trafficking. Mandatory minimum prison sentences of 3, 7, 15, 25 years, life or death will be imposed depending on the type and amount of the controlled substance. A minimum of three years will be mandated for any person convicted of possession, sale, importation, etc., of at least 25 pounds of cannabis, 4 grams of flunitrazepam, morphine, opium or heroin, 14 grams of amphetamine, 28 grams of cocaine and phencyclidine, or 200 grams of methaqualone. Penalties increase as the type and amount of the drugs increase or if use of the drug results in someone’s death.” [MyFlorida.com, accessed 4/9/15 (via archive.org)]
Jeb Bush dismantled Florida’s affirmative action program for college admissions, leading to a sharp decline in black enrollment at the state’s flagship universities. “As he courts Republicans across the country, Jeb Bush boasts that an executive order he signed that ended race-based college admissions in Florida upheld conservative principles while helping minorities. […] But at Florida’s two premier universities, black enrollment is shrinking. At the University of Florida in Gainesville and at Florida State University in Tallahassee, administrators say they worry that the trend risks diminishing their standing as world-class universities and hurts the college experience. The black share of the UF freshman class, for instance, plunged to 6 percent in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available. That is down from 9 percent in 2011. ‘If we don’t address this in the next two or three years, I think we’re going to have a problem,’ said Brandon Bowden, assistant vice president for student affairs at Florida State, which had a 15 percent drop in the number of black freshmen enrolled between 2000 and 2009. ‘There will be so few black students on our campus that prospective students [who are black] will choose not to come here because they see no one who looks like them.’” [Washington Post, 4/6/15]
Immigration
Jeb Bush opposed a path to citizenship for undocumented workers. “Former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) on Monday backed off his previous support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, saying it would send the wrong message to people who have tried to immigrate legally. Asked by NBC’s Matt Lauer why his new book doesn’t advocate a path to citizenship, Bush said it wouldn’t be fair. ‘Because our proposal is a proposal that looks forward,’ he said. ‘And if we want to create an immigration policy that’s going to work, we can’t continue to make illegal immigration an easier path than legal immigration. And so I think it’s important that there is a natural friction between our immigrant heritage and the rule of law.’ Bush added that rewarding illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship would lead to even more illegal immigration.” [Washington Post, 3/4/13]
Jeb Bush said Obama’s executive order stopping the deportation of DREAMers was “way beyond the purview of executive power.” “Bush also offered a stern rebuke to Obama on immigration, and accused him of playing politics. Earlier this summer, the president signed an executive order that stopped the deportation of certain young illegal immigrants. Bush said he saw Obama’s action as a way of undercutting Romney and winning good will from Hispanic voters, not as an effective piece of policy. ‘This is so cynical. And he – I mean, if you’re, if you, if the law says clearly that you have a case-by-case right to review cases, and you blanket say 800,000 people comply, that is way beyond the purview of executive power,’ Bush said.” [Washington Post, 8/30/12]