DNC head claims GOP sees economic failure as election strategy

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, held little back in an opinion piece published Tuesday. Using the ongoing Democratic cry of “we can’t wait,” the Floridian accused the Republican 2012 candidates as “pandering” to an “extreme elements” and forcing a worsening economic condition on the American people to further their own political gain.

She also warned that while Republicans may have the political spotlight now, in advance of 2012 caucuses and primaries, they should prepare for the fight on the horizon.

“While the Republicans may be getting more attention in the early states right now, there’s no denying that voters will face a very stark choice next year,” Wasserman Schultz wrote in the piece published Tuesday by Politico. “Obama continues working to find sensible solutions to get more Americans back to work and to rebuild the economy through a strong middle class. Meanwhile, Republicans continue advocating tax breaks for the wealthiest and corporations while shifting more burdens onto seniors and the middle class.

“Americans can’t wait. They need action now to get the economy moving again. The president continues to work hard to turn the economy around. Republicans need to get off the sidelines and join him and stop rooting for the economy’s failure in order to win an election.”

She had especially harsh words for GOP contender Mitt Romney:

… Indeed, while the president is focused on saving homeowners thousands of dollars each year by helping them refinance their mortgages, Mitt Romney went to Nevada and told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that we should not “try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.” He went on to say that it would be better to have families lose their homes so investors could swoop in, buy foreclosed homes and turn a profit, literally leaving the average American homeowner out in the cold. …

Just a few short years ago, the economy, the housing market and the economic security of millions of Americans were completely shattered because bankers were taking risky bets on people’s mortgages.

What is Romney’s prescription for curing this ailment? He wants to kick those same people who have been suffering out of their homes, allow bankers and investors to make a quick buck and then rewrite the laws to allow bankers to write their own rules. Romney doesn’t just want to return to the same policies that brought our economy to its knees; he wants to double down on them. …

He is so out of touch with working Americans he believes that families in Iowa would consider a tax break of $1,580 “just a little Band-Aid.” That $1,580 may be just another drop in the bucket for the CEOs and special interest groups that fund Romney’s campaign, but that money covers the cost of groceries and bills for average Americans. …

Democrats, who have been largely absent from 2012 headlines as a result of the GOP’s nomination process, have released estimates of what Obama’s American Jobs Act would mean to families and small-business owners in the four early states. Their figures show a typical working Iowa family receiving the tax break Wasserman Schulz referenced above along with numerous other positives.

Similar scenarios were distributed in New Hampshire (payroll tax breaks to 30,000 small businesses), Nevada (3,600 teachers and emergency responders on the job), and South Carolina (6,300 jobs created for infrastructure projects).

“The message from the President is clear: The American people can’t wait for a dysfunctional and hyperpartisan Republican Party in Congress to act,” she wrote.

Wasserman Schultz’s message is also clear: No matter who remains standing after the GOP nomination process and no matter how many conservative talking points have dominated recent headlines, Democrats are going to be vivacious players in the 2012 sanguinary rumble.