The Hill News

Democrats rolled out on Wednesday what they said was a major initiative seeking to link together the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement.

The Democratic National Committee will unveil a new campaign called the "Republican-Tea Party Contract With America," a play on the Contract with America, the 1994 campaign platform on which GOP candidates campaigned.

The campaign is meant to cast Republican candidates this fall as inextricably tied with the Tea Party movement, part of an effort by Democrats to underscore the difference between themselves and the GOP ahead of November's elections.

The campaign will lay out "how the Tea Party is now the most potent force in Republican politics and…an institutionalized part of the Republican party," said a DNC source.

"They are one and the same. The positions espoused by the Tea Party is the governing platform of the Republican party," the source added. "And as voters make their choi! ce this fall it's important to understand what the Republican-Tea Party wants to do if elected."

The DNC is billing the Tea Party Contract as a major part of their election efforts, less than 100 days until the election. The effort includes a website and new web video (below), and will likely include paid advertisements, too. DNC Chairman Tim Kaine will join with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a DNC vice chairwoman, to detail the plan.

The plan seizes on a sense among Democrats that they can run against the Tea Party and its candidates in this fall's elections by casting them as out of the mainstream electorate. It's fueled by a sense that the party and the official GOP are becoming increasingly tied -- through new developments like House Republicans' new Tea Party Caucus, and top GOP lawmakers' coziness with and praise for the movement of conservative activists.

The effort is also as much a bid by Democrats to define the GOP platf! orm before Republicans have a chance to do so themselves. Some! Republi cans have mulled a new version of the "Contract for America," the campaign document onto which many candidates signed in 1994 before landslides that saw the party win back the House and Senate. Already some lawmakers and candidates have signed onto the "Contract from America," a grassroots-based election platform. Top Republicans have suggested they are likely to lay out some sort of written platform, but not until they have a chance to confer with constituents during the August congressional recess.

The effort is also part of the broader initiative from House Democrats to go on the offensive against Republicans in August.

"While GOP leaders are still promising to hold town halls and online forums to develop a contract of their own, it’s already clear what that agenda will be based on what self-professed Tea Part adherents have said they stand for and the Republican adoption of the Tea Party," said the DNC source.

The items on the "Tea Party Co! ntract with America" are:

1. Repeal the Affordable Care Act (Health insurance Reform)
2. Privatize Social Security or phase it out altogether
3. End Medicare as it presently exists
4. Extend the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy and big oil
5. Repeal Wall Street Reform
6. Protect those responsible for the oil spill and future environmental catastrophes
7. Abolish the Department of education
8. Abolish the Department of energy
9. Abolish the environmental protection agency
10. Repeal the 17th Amendment which provides for the direct election of senators

Find the DNC's new video below, too: