QUICK CLIP: Joni Ernst doubles down on her sham “paid family leave” plan

Joni Ernst is doubling down on her “paid family leave” plan — panned as a “sham that would wreck your retirement” — even as one of her own GOP colleagues came out against the proposal as a “raid” on Social Security.

WHO-DM reported on Friday that Ernst was “hearing the criticism about a paid leave act she introduced this week, but she says still believes in it.”

Ernst criticized “others that would just simply rather throw a tax out there,” while acknowledging the bill “isn’t perfect.” Ernst is right– possibly destroying Social Security as we know it isn’t what we’d call “perfect.”

Watch WHO-DM’s reporting here:

Watch the full clip here.

Read more after the jump.

New March Madness Ads: Kentucky & Louisville Fans Unite in Booing Matt Bevin

Watch the new ad here

 

American Bridge is launching new ads this weekend ahead of the start of March Madness. The ads will run statewide in Kentucky and are targeted to University of Kentucky and University of Louisville basketball fans. The ads highlight that there is virtually nowhere in Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin can go without being booed out of the room.

 

Watch the ad below.

“Matt Bevin is so unpopular he can’t leave his mansion without being booed,” said American Bridge spokesperson Zach Hudson. “America’s most corrupt Governor is clearly also the most unpopular one. If there’s one thing that can unite Kentucky and Louisville fans, it’s that it’s time to boot Matt Bevin from the Governor’s office.”

Read more after the jump.

Tillis slammed for “very public 180” on national emergency disapproval

What North Carolinians are seeing about Tillis’s “switcheroo”

 

Robesonian: Tillis flips, backs Trump’s declaration

“Tillis was among a group of GOP senators who had wavered amid concerns that Trump’s die-hard loyalty from millions of conservative voters could lead them to punish defecting lawmakers in next year’s elections.”

NC Policy Watch: Tillis flips back to Trump camp on national emergency

“‘I suspect that maybe some people had signaled that behavior like this may lead to being primaried,’ [Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University] said. ‘He was in damage control.’”

Washington Post: Tillis’s reversal sums up state of Senate Republicans — few willing to cross Trump

“Tillis’s actions highlighted a hardening reality in Washington: Republicans who have real near-term political skin in the game are not willing to stand up to him.”

CBC: Editorial: Sen. Tillis delivers flip-flop for the ages

“What Tillis says he […]

Read more after the jump.

Snapshots from the GOP’s national emergency dumpster fire

In case you missed it– Yesterday 12 Republican Senators sided with Democrats to vote against President Trump’s fake national emergency. But five of the most vulnerable 2020 Senate Republicans put their constituents and their constitutional principles on the back burner in an attempt to preserve their political careers.

The verdict from across the country? Dumpster fire.

Roll Call: These GOP senators voted to potentially let Trump pull funds from military projects back home

“Some Republican senators who voted Thursday against terminating the President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration may face backlash for risking military projects in their home states.”

Bloomberg (Opinion): The Dysfunctional Republican Party Strikes Again

“It seems likely that electoral incentives pushed McSally, Gardner and Tillis away from the center because Republicans politicians have learned to be more afraid of primary challenges and threats of withholding party resources for disloyalty than they are afraid of swing voters in their districts.”

The Denver […]

Read more after the jump.

American Bridge Statement on National Emergency Disapproval Resolution

American Bridge released the following statement after Senators Tillis, Gardner, Perdue, McSally, and Ernst sided with President Trump to vote against the disapproval resolution blocking Trump’s national emergency. The resolution passed the Senate 59-41.

“It’s crystal clear that Republican Senators are more scared of a primary challenge than they are loyal to their principles or to their constituents,” said American Bridge spokesperson Amelia Penniman. “It’s another example in a long list of Republicans abandoning conservative principles in the interest of political power, and another reason they are wholly unfit to lead.”

Read more after the jump.

Ernst’s “paid family leave” plan gets dragged

In case you missed it– Iowa Senator Joni Ernst unveiled a new “paid family leave” plan this week that 1) isn’t paid, and 2) could destroy Social Security as we know it.

The proposal has been roundly criticized by a group that includes one of Ernst’s Republican colleagues, and applauded by Koch allies and public policy wonk Ivanka Trump. For more on Ernst’s insidious CRADLE Act, read on:

LA Times: The Republican proposal for paid family leave is a sham that would wreck your retirement
By Michael Hiltzik | March 13, 2019

“Republican Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Mike Lee of Utah have been beating the drums for their ‘Cradle Act,’ a proposal to institute up to 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents.”
“But they’ve concealed the chief drawbacks of their plan, which are the same features that make it palatable to a GOP constituency: It would undermine Social Security, […]

Read more after the jump.

Where does Martha McSally stand on Arizona’s new junk insurance plans?

Arizona’s Republican governor signed a bill into law this week allowing insurance companies to offer plans exempt from the ACA’s pre-existing condition protections — which could lead Arizonans suffering from cancer or diabetes to be dropped by their insurance at a moment’s notice. Watch one Arizona mother talk about her daughter’s pre-existing condition here.

As a failed Senate candidate in 2018, Martha McSally falsely claimed she was “leading the fight” to force insurers to cover pre-existing conditions — then turned around and voted to confirm Chad Readler, a key player in Trump’s efforts to gut the ACA, to the Circuit Court.

McSally is no stranger to flip-flopping, but Arizonans deserve to know what their Senator is doing to keep her campaign promises on pre-existing conditions. Where does Martha McSally stand on Arizona’s new junk insurance plans?

Read more after the jump.