The Hill News

Republicans sought to respond more broadly to voters' concerns in crafting their "Pledge for America," while Democrats seized Thursday on what was left out of the agenda.

The 21-page agenda, formally released on Thursday morning by House Republicans at a hardware store in northern Virginia, was culled from the "America Speaking Out" (ASO) program and town hall meetings GOP lawmakers have held in recent months.

"ASO was about finding out people’s priorities â€" rather than serving as American Idol for policy," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for the agenda. "By soliciting ideas and votes, we were able to see a picture of the issues that are important to people. Once we figured out the top issues, we were able to offer the solutions we believe addresses them properly."

Democrats sought to needle Republicans, accusing them of ignoring 80 percent of the ideas on the website.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) office compiled a list ! of 130 ideas that received 1,000 or more votes on the website, totaling votes for similar ideas as a single tally. Of those 130 ideas, only 26 ideas overlap with the proposals contained in the "Pledge to America." Some of those ideas, like ending the liability cap for oil spills or legalizing gay marriage, run against traditional Republican ideas. Others, like a Balanced Budget Amendment, are among the ideas some conservatives have said they wished the GOP had included in the platform. 

“It’s telling that Washington Republicans claimed to have listened to the American people when writing their pledge despite the fact they ignored one of the top vote getters on their site, which was to stop the outsourcing of American jobs," said Doug Thornell, a spokesman for Van Hollen. "I guess it’s not surprising since they ignored 80% of the other top ideas on their website. John Boehner got one thing right today when he admitted that Republicans are no different from the g! ang that drove the economy into the ditch.”

Republican! s opted for a more holistic approach to forming their platform.

"Of course, with such a broad, diverse universe of users, no exact, enumerated plan could be expected to appear unchallenged," said the report Republicans issued on what they learned through ASO. "Often contradictory and conflicting ideas were popular. Yet while the prescriptions varied, the priorities were undeniably clear."

Democrats have sought to read between the lines of the Republican agenda, though, and hang GOP candidates on language that's not in the Pledge.

"What's hidden in this Pledge is the Republican pledge to privatize Social Security," charged Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) at a press conference on Thursday afternoon at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Democrats also complained that the GOP plan made no mention of education policy.

Indeed, the plan makes no mention of education, but on entitlements like Social Security, the Pledge only talks ! of "requiring a full accounting of Social Security" and other entitlement programs.

Buck said the plan was about addressing broad themes Republicans have noticed.

"Under Democratic control, Congress has focused on the priorities of the party (see healthcare), not the people (see jobs)," he wrote. "We wanted to demonstrate that we are listening, we hear what your top priorities are, and we’re going to focus on them and them alone."