Republican National Committee officials have prepared a broadside against President Barack Obama’s request, expected Monday, for another budget carrying a trillion-dollar deficit.
They will argue that Obama’s newest budget request — due out Monday morning — shows he can’t be trusted by the public, and they’re stepping up their criticism of what they say is Obama’s “ethics crisis.”
The day’s attack features a video aimed at swing-voting women, an afternoon press briefing with Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, and a briefing — titled “The Big Fail” — that highlights Obama’s record on unemployment, housing, national debt, poverty, ethics and negative advertising.
The video, titled “My Daughter’s Future,” uses a woman’s voice, and begins with a child, before showing a worried woman.
“The day my daughter was born,” she says, “was the happiest day of my life … but with our national debt skyrocketing under President Obama, I worry about what future she’ll be able to afford.”
While the background shows Obama and budget charts, the voice-over continues: “Obama promised to cut the deficit in half. But he didn’t, and now our children will have to pay for his reckless spending.” (RELATED: Full coverage of the RNC)
“President Obama, you broke your promise. I’ll never forget that.”
Watch:
The RNC’s message is amplified in a memo from its communications chief, Sean Spicer. “Reckless spending is the trademark of the Obama presidency. … He occasionally engages in spending gimmickry to make it seem as though he cares about efficiency and cost-reduction,” according to the memo, titled “Obama’s Trust Deficit.”
Throughout 2012, “Barack Obama will undoubtedly make countless promises to the American people about how a second term will be better … he will probably even promise to shrink the deficit or pay down the debt [but] he has already made that promise, and he has already broken that promise … that’s one deficit that can never be cut in half,” says the memo.
It also cites dour numbers about the nation’s economy, the housing recession and unemployment, and ends with a slap at Obama’s ethical record.
That’s a departure from the previous RNC documents, which have tended to downplay direct criticism of Obama’s ethics. The new emphasis suggests that the RNC has overcome its previous concern about Obama’s relatively high public likability numbers.
The new criticism of his ethics begins with the claim that “Obama’s ethical lapses stand in stark control to his lofty rhetoric,” and continues by quoting media reports about the president’s flip-flops on campaign funding and lobbyist donations, and the administration’s secretiveness and cooperation with wealthy donors, despite Obama’s class-warfare rhetoric about banks and wealthy entrepreneurs.
The briefing ends with a criticism of Obama’s emphasis on negative attack ads.
“Due to his failed record, Obama has nothing to run on and will resort to ‘the most negative campaign in history,” the briefing predicts.
