To: Interested Parties From: Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Date: July 28, 2024 Subject: 100 Days Out: House Republicans’ Extremely Unpopular Project 2025 Agenda Will Cost Them in November
With 100 days left before Election Day, public scrutiny of Trump and House Republicans’ disturbing Project 2025 agenda is increasing – and so is the public’s opposition to it.
Vulnerable House Republicans have embraced the tenants of Donald Trump and his radical Project 2025 agenda throughout the 118th Congress, and their enthusiastic embrace of these policies will be the anchor the DCCC will use to sink the campaigns of the phony moderates who refuse to stand up to Trump and his extreme agenda in the final sprint towards Election Day.
Raising Taxes and Costs on the Middle Class
House Republicans are all in on Trump’s Tax Scam that abandoned working families while ballooning salaries for the top 10%. At the RNC earlier this month, House GOP leadership pledged toextend this disastrous scheme next year if they maintain their majority. Project 2025 takes the Trump Tax Scam a step further by explicitly raising taxes on millions of working families.
Rigging the tax system to benefit the ultra wealthy is, understandably, deeply unpopular with voters – an overwhelming 74% think that Project 2025’s changes to the tax system are harmful.
Yet House Republicans have voted dozens of times to raise costs for working families and seniors. They have attempted, and continue, to call for the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act. The law allows Medicare to negotiate lower costs and prescription drug price caps – including the $35 price cap on insulin for seniors – and 80% of voters oppose its repeal. Despite this broad public support, vulnerable House Republicans like Rep. Ryan Zinke (MT-01) have led efforts to get rid of this cost-saving measure.
Marching Towards a Nationwide Abortion Ban
House Republicans are marching the country towards their ultimate goal of banning abortion nationwide – and Project 2025 is their roadmap to enforce draconian restrictions. As the authors of Project 2025 put it, “the Dobbs decision is just the beginning.” House Republicans are at the forefront of these attempts to end reproductive freedom nationwide, with the majority of their conference co-sponsoring a total ban on abortion without exceptions, in addition to banning safe and effective abortion medication and restricting procedures like in vitro fertilization.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, nationwide support for abortion rights has grown to 63%. House Republicans know how out of touch they are on the issue, so they’re doing everything they can to hide their extreme anti-freedom agenda from the public. Dozens of Republican candidates and incumbents have joined J.D. Vance and been caughtscrubbingtheiranti-abortion positions, including Reps. Monica De La Cruz (TX-15), Jen Kiggans (VA-02), Tom Kean Jr. (NJ-07), Brandon Williams (NY-22), and Nick LaLota (NY-01), and candidates like Yvette Herrell (NM-02), Rob Mercuri (PA-17), and Tom Barrett (MI-07).
Gutting Medicare and Social Security Trump and MAGA Republicans have called for massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare, robbing hard-earned benefits from millions of seniors. House Republicans have endorsedprivatizing Medicare, raising the retirement age, and cutting disability benefits. Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-01), for example, has been especially vocal in embracing these cuts. House Republican candidates in competitive seats are also calling for cuts to these essential programs. Kevin Coughlin (OH-13) has repeatedly called for privatizing Medicare and gambling with people’s Social Security benefits.
Weakening America’s Checks and Balances and Empowering Trump’s Revenge Agenda
Project 2025 is an unprecedented effort to obliterate the system of checks and balances that have long protected Americans’ freedoms. This extreme plan would give Donald Trump unprecedented authority over historically independent agencies like the FBI and Department of Justice, letting him pursue revenge on his political enemies. Under Project 2025, House Republicans would reshape the government to serve one person: Donald Trump. More than two thirds of voters oppose the efforts within Project 2025 to undermine our system of checks and balances.
House Republicans have already pushed legislation to reshape the government to protect Trump, starting with defunding federal law enforcement to protect Trump from prosecution. Vulnerable Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13)led efforts to undermine the politically independent DOJ (with Trump’s total support), while members like Reps. Nick LaLota (NY-01) and Ken Calvert (CA-41) have irresponsibly undermined America’s justice system with baseless accusations fit for conspiracy theorists, not elected leaders.
By packaging together their most unpopular and extreme policies into a simple to remember slogan: “Project 2025,” House Republicans have gift wrapped a clear and simple message for Democrats to employ in the closing months of the election. In the final 100 days of the campaign, Republicans are promising higher taxes, rising inflation, abortion bans, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and an authoritarian, far-right agenda designed to undermine our democracy and severely limit individual liberties and freedoms. While MAGA extremists wrote Project 2025 to outline their far-right fantasies, it is in fact the blueprint for the DCCC to defeat House Republicans across the country and retake the majority to make Hakeem Jeffries the next Speaker of the House.
