Anticipating that "Bidenomics" versus "MAGAnomics" will be the prevailing theme at the GOP’s second presidential debate this week, the Democratic National Committee presented a "prebuttal" of the candidates’ talking points Monday. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Democratic National Committee, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined forces to "prebut" the 2nd GOP presidential debate

  • Pelosi called Trump's decision to forgo the debate "a joke, except it isn't funny"

  • Newsom said the contrast between the Democratic and Republican parties is "as different as daylight and darkness"

  • DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said "the 2024 MAGA Republican field is the most extreme" in history

From Nikki Haley and Tim Scott to Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump, “the 2024 MAGA Republican field is the most extreme, the most out of touch slate of candidates in history,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said during a press conference with House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

At least six Republican presidential contenders will debate Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. While former President Trump is leading in the polls, he said he will forgo the debate to speak with United Auto Workers members in Michigan instead — a move Pelosi derided as a “joke, except it’s not funny” and Newsom called a “performance” compared with Trump’s track record toward unions during the time he was president.

Creating jobs, lowering costs and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to get ahead, Bidenomics is “the right way forward for our country,” Pelosi said

Pelosi derided Trump’s Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017. The biggest overhaul of the tax code in three decades, the law permanently cut taxes for corporations, creating a single corporate tax rate of 21%, while also temporarily reducing personal income taxes.

Calling the act a “tax scam” and the “Trump-Pence giveaways,” Pelosi said the benefits of the tax overhaul added $2 trillion to the national debt while predominantly benefiting the top 1% of earners.

She criticized GOP candidates Chris Christie and Haley for praising the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and Mike Pence and Vivek Ramaswamy for saying they would make the tax cuts permanent.

She singled out DeSantis, Haley, Ramaswamy and Scott for vowing to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed into law last year to “boost domestic manufacturing, create good-paying union jobs and build more resilient, secure, and trusted supply chains,” according to the White House.

She also singled out Christie and Pence for their attacks on the Obama administration’s passage of the Affordable Care Act, which now provides coverage to more than 18 million Americans.

“When you look at the next debate and you look at the contrast between the two parties at the moment, it’s as different as daylight and darkness,” Newsom said. “The members of the Republican Party who will be on stage Wednesday night stand in stark contrast to the progress we’ve all enjoyed over the last half century.”

Newsom characterized the 2024 election as a choice between the forces of transformation, represented by the DNC, and restoration, which he characterized as “those that want to see America in reverse and take us back to a pre 1960s world.”

Newsom criticized the Republican candidates for “attacking long-settled rights,” including abortion. Calling it “rights regression,” Newsom said the Republican candidates were rolling back rights on voting, civil rights, LGBTQ issues and women’s reproductive freedom.

Referencing the second GOP debate location, Newsom cited Ronald Reagan’s economic track record as establishing a template for future Republican presidents. Since 1989, when Reagan ended his second term, Newsom said 96% of the jobs created had been during Democratic administration. He contrasted the Biden administration’s creation of 13.5 million jobs during the first 2 1/2 years of his term with the Trump administration’s loss of 2.9 million jobs.

“Why is it the last three Republican presidents share one thing in common, and that’s recessions?” Newsom said.

He praised Biden for increasing GDP growth 3.1% while also reducing the federal deficit 6.5%, or $1.7 trillion, thanks in part to the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act that will provide $280 billion in new funds to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors.

Newsom expressed gratitude forHarrison, Pelosi and Biden “for doing a hell of a job the first 2 1/2 years,” he said. “That’s why we’re all in on making the case of the American people closing the gap on performance and perception, addressing the needs of the American people and moving this campaign forward once we turn the page on yet another, Republican debate.”

During an economic policy speech last week, Haley called "Bidenomics" a "political subsidity economy." 

"The government is taking money from the middle class and giving it to everyone else," she said. "The well-connected are getting wealthier through corporate welfare, while the poor get trapped in regular welfare. That’s called socialism. And as history shows, socialism kills the middle class."

In an interview with Fox News last week, Scott blamed Biden's economic policies for driving up inflation and costing Americans thousands of dollars in spending power.