OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Top Republicans have responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s criticism of their “Commitment to America” plan which they unveiled on Friday ahead of what are expected to be some highly competitive midterm elections.
Their remarks came after Pelosi’s office put out a statement using what has become a standard Democratic Party attack line regarding the “MAGA” agenda of former President Donald Trump.
“Today’s rollout is the latest evidence of House Republicans’ whole-hearted commitment to MAGA: going all-in on an extremist agenda designed to greatly diminish Americans’ health, freedom and security,” she said, according to Fox News.
“This alarming new extreme MAGA platform threatens to criminalize women’s health care, slash seniors’ Medicare and raise prescription drug prices, and attack our free and fair elections,” the California Democrat added.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is first in line to replace Pelosi if Republicans regain control of the chamber, accused the Speaker of being too afraid to run on her party’s dismal record since taking over Congress and the White House.
“Because the Democrats have caused inflation, crime in our streets by defunding the police, runaway spending causing inflation,” McCarthy told Fox News. “Going after American energy and making the price of gas, causing inflation. This is a plan to fix the problems the Democrats have created, and I think the American public should have an election based upon ideas.”
“I think why she does that is she can’t run on the policies and the damage they’ve caused to America,” the GOP leader continued. “And they have no plan to fix it.”
Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told the outlet that Pelosi’s comment “shows the country every day how out of touch she is with America.”
“When she says American energy independence is extreme, I think people know who’s the extremist,” Scalise added. “When she says securing our border is extreme, so we don’t have over 100,000 young people die from fentanyl, she’s showing herself to be the extremist.”
“People are angry about all of the spending, the inflation, the out-of-control policies that have come from this big, far-left socialism agenda that Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden have pushed,” Scalise noted further. “The Commitment to America is a bold, conservative answer to what’s broken in Washington.”
“We’re gonna actually focus on fixing the problems that Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden created, and I think you’re going to see tremendous excitement all around the country, not just from Republicans, but from Democrats and independents, too, who are tired of that far-left, extremist socialist agenda,” Scalise said.
House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York predicted that “Speaker Pelosi is going to be fired in 46 days.”
“We are proud to lead the way,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital. “House Republicans are on a mission to save this country. We have a Commitment to America, and I can promise you we will fire Nancy Pelosi once and for all.”
The plan mirrors a similar one fashioned by then-House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican who devised a series of policy priorities that were credited with helping Republicans win control of Congress for the first time in more than four decades during then-President Bill Clinton’s first midterms in 1994. At the time, Republicans vowed to pass the measures within the first 100 days after they took control of the House and Senate; many were passed and some were eventually signed into law by Clinton, such as major welfare reform.
“Over the past two years, Democrats in Washington have led America off-track,” says the preamble to the document. “They created crisis after crisis: from crippling inflation and rampant crime to failing schools, border chaos, and disrespect for our nation across the globe.”
“The Commitment to America represents a new direction and better approach that will get our nation back on track,” it noted further.
“We wanted to do a plan for a new direction. We want to be upfront with the American public. We want an election to have a contrast. If they put their trust in us, this is exactly what we’ll do. Hold our feet to the fire. And on the very first day, we’re going to repeal 87,000 IRS agents. So they’re not going after you. We work for you. You don’t work for us,” McCarthy told Fox News on Friday.
