Following the Fox News/Google Republican presidential debate held in Orlando tonight, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement:

“Tonight, the Republican candidates for president held their second Florida debate in as many weeks, and whether they’re in Orlando, Tampa or any other part of the country, the message is always the same: They have no new ideas for creating jobs or helping America’s middle class. They simply want to get rid of all the things that protect and improve the lives of middle class families—Social Security, Medicare, the EPA, the Department of Education, Wall Street Reform, the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ and more. We heard more of the same failed policies of the past that the Tea Party is demanding they support—policies that would dismantle Social Security into pieces, end Medicare as we know it, and provide even more handouts and tax cuts to large corporations, special interests and the richest Americans while asking our nation’s seniors, students and middle-class families to pay for it.

“What we did not see tonight was a single Republican candidate stand up for the bipartisan American Jobs Act, the President’s proposal to get more Americans back to work and put more money back into their pockets. Nor did they offer support for President Obama’s new plan to restore economic security and reduce the deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next decade. That would require the Republican candidates to challenge the right-wing ideology of the Tea Party, and from everything we saw tonight, that is a pipe dream.

“Let’s be clear, the policies GOP frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry and the rest of the candidates all support would slash Social Security—cutting benefits and putting seniors at risk. And all the GOP candidates support the Republican budget plan in Congress ending Medicare as we know it.

“At a time when we need to be moving our country forward, Republicans are offering no plan for securing our economic future—and that is something we simply cannot afford.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement today on the results of the Iowa GOP’s Ames Straw Poll:

Today’s results could have been easily predicted by anyone who watched the Republican debate on Thursday, heard Mitt Romney say at the Iowa State Fair this week that ‘corporations are people,’ or have been following the race up to now. All of the Republican candidates have made clear their allegiance to the Tea Party, supporting extreme policies that would hurt the middle class, seniors, and students. The only winner tonight was the Tea Party.

We’re not hearing any new ideas or solutions from Republicans, just the same failed Republican ideas that endangered our economy in the first place.  Every single Republican candidate, just like Washington Republicans, is embracing policies that would maintain corporate loopholes and tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, which would force the middle class to bear much of the burden. Every single Republican candidate supports the Ryan budget plan and Cut, Cap and Balance that would end Medicare as we know it and remove the safety net for America's seniors.

None of the Republican candidates are willing to stand up for the middle class and working families.They are more than willing to take their cues from the Tea Party and let them take over the Republican Party, and they are putting ideology first. The Ames Straw Poll may be over, but the campaign continues. As these Republican candidates travel the country, I have no doubt they’ll make clear to voters where they stand—on the side of large corporations and the wealthiest Americans, not the middle class, seniors, or students.

Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued the following statement after tonight’s Fox News Republican Presidential Debate in Ames, Iowa, where the Republican candidates all showed their unbridled allegiance to the Tea Party and their extreme ideas:

Click here to see the Republican Candidates Pledge their Allegiance to the Tea Party: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKzGZj32LYc

Tonight we learned without a doubt that these Republican candidates represent the single most extreme GOP Presidential field in the history of Presidential politics.  It wasn't enough for those Republicans who aspire to be President to simply pander to the Tea Party, tonight they raised their hands and pledged allegiance to the Tea Party and swore an oath to stand by their extreme agenda without yielding.

Every candidate raised their hand tonight and pledged to not require millionaires, billionaires or the special interests to pay an additional dime to address our nation's problems - this in a debate where they didn't mention the middle class one time and continued to stand by plans like Cut, Cap and Balance, which would end Medicare as we know it.

If Americans were looking for a debate where the Republican Presidential candidates' true colors shone through - they got it tonight. Slashing Medicare, privatizing Social Security, placing additional burdens on the middle class, all while protecting corporate CEO's and Big Oil, might be the agenda of the Tea Party, but it's not the direction that the vast majority of Americans want to see the country go.