NEWS FROM THE FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY
For Immediate Release: September 7, 2011
Contact: Brannon Jordan, (850) 222-3411

In Advance of Tonight’s GOP Presidential Debate, FLA Dems Releases New Numbers on Job Losses in Florida Resulting From GOP’s Extreme Policies
 
GOP’s Support of Tea Party Budget Plan Would Cost 9.5 Million American Jobs, Morethan 473,000 in Florida

Tallahassee, FL – In advance of tonight’s GOP Presidential debate, Florida Democratic Party, based on a new analysis conducted by the Democratic National Committee, released an estimate of the number of jobs which would be lost in Florida as a result of the Republican Party’s presidential candidates support for extreme economic policies, including a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution like that included in the Tea Party budget plan passed by the U.S. House ofRepresentatives this summer.
 
The DNC’s analysis found that the balanced budget amendment called for in the plan, if in place in 2012, would result in the loss of 9.5 million American jobs and more than 473,000 jobs right here in Florida. The loss of so many jobs could sink the U.S. into a depression the likes of which the country hasn’t experienced since the Great Depression.
 
“There’s not a Democrat, Independent or Republican that doesn’t think we need to get our fiscal house in order, but this blatant appeal to the Tea Party would do nothing more than worsen economic conditions and lead to a second dip recession,” said Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith.
 
This new analysis looked at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) August deficit projections for 2012 ($991 billion deficit with CBO options for Iraq drawdown, extension of all tax provisions and Alternative Minimum Tax indexing and accounting for the so-called “Doc” fix), and using the conservative Romer-Bernstein rule of thumb that 1 percent of GDP equates to 1 million jobs, concluded that if the planwere fully phased in by 2012, and nearly a trillion dollars in federal spending was slashed, the balanced budget amendment would cost 9.5 million jobs nationwide.
 
“It is time for the Republicans to come forth with a plan that would actually help middle class families, rather than please the extreme wing of the party,” Smith continued.
 
Because of the balanced budget amendment’s strict requirements for deep cuts, hard spending caps and a two-thirds majority toraise revenue, Congress would be virtually helpless to reverse the negativeeffects of these Tea Party Republican policies.  Despite these negative consequences, every Republican presidential candidate, courting the extreme Tea Party vote, has come out in favor of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, or the Tea Party plan which contains one.
 
Link to Report: http://my.democrats.org/DNC-report