A.G. Gancarski
Republicans “want to take us backwards,” Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday morning, taking specific aim throughout her comments at Florida Republican Presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.
Wasserman-Schultz pivoted into a critique of many members of the Republican field on equal pay issues, saying that “not only do we need to support equal pay, but we need to endorse it.”
DWS then talked about “cornerstones of a middle class life,” which includes access to health care and “President Obama’s efforts to make sure people remain in their homes.”
DWS went on to cite 65 continuous months of job growth; that “progress… would not be seen under a Republican presidency,” she asserted.
“The Republicans the last few weeks have not had such a fun time… if Republicans think that things have gone well, they need to look at Jeb Bush.”
Citing Bush’s comments on “women’s health care,” Wasserman Schultz went on to describe women’s health care as an “economic issue,” including “basic access to health care” and “reproductive choices,” hitting Jeb and Rubio again.
“Bush… supports repealing the Affordable Care Act… Marco Rubio has the same opinion as Todd Akin,” she added, saying that Rubio and Akin support banning abortion “even in the case of rape and incest.”
From there, Wasserman Schultz painted Bush as an opponent of Social Security and Medicare.
“Republicans like Jeb Bush believe that we should privatize Social Security… Jeb Bush said the other day that we should phase out Medicare.”
“We need to make sure that we have a candidate for President,” she added, who would be “committed to the cornerstones of a middle class life.
“Jeb Bush has doubled down,” she added, on the Republican use of “anchor babies,” which DWS described as a “vulgar word that I can’t even use.”
She received a mixture of cheers and boos as she left the stage, along with a chant of “We Want Debate.”
She did reach out to the left in her remarks, with an extended paean to the Black Lives Matter movement
