Morning Briefing
For November 28, 2012
1. I’m Not Sure What Republicans Stand For in Congress
I was once an elected Republican. There isn’t much that the Republican Party has to do with trash collection, but I was a Republican on the Macon, Georgia City Council and I supported trash collection privatization. It wasn’t the Republican thing to do. It was the conservative thing to do. It was the right thing to do. Multiple times it had been tried and multiple times it had saved taxpayer dollars.
There aren’t a lot of Republican positions at the local level. There aren’t a lot of Democrat positions at the local level. There are conservative and liberal positions. There are positions that believe the private sector can do better and positions that believe the public sector can do better.
In Congress, there used to be clear and distinct Republican and Democrat positions. But in the past decade, about the only thing separating the GOP from the Democrats is the rate of spending. Republicans spend less, but they still spend a lot. Oh, and they love babies in utero.
Republicans used to believe in free enterprise, the private sector, and low taxes. They believed in getting government the heck out of the way. They still talk like that, but they don’t seem to actually be operating like that. Senate and House Republicans seem to be in a bidding war to increase revenue in Washington. What’s worse, they are mendacious enough to call it “increasing revenue” instead of “tax increases,” when it amounts to the same thing. The Republican Party of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have taken a party that once believed in starving the beast and transforming it into a party that believes in feeding the leviathan lest the leviathan consume them. They operate out of fear — fear of losing their remaining power, fear of blame, and fear of the unknown. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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2. FLS: Screw Up, Lose, and Spin
On January 2, 2009, I wrote about FLS Connect. FLS Connect received over $1 million from the National Republican Campaign Committee in 2008. It was also, back then, the third largest recipient of expenditures from the Republican National Committee, netting around $30 million.
As I wrote then, “Rich Beeson is the Political Director of the RNC. Before going to the RNC (and after leaving the RNC I’m sure), Beeson was a partner at FLS.” Beeson went on to be the Political Director for Mitt Romney in charge of the now famous ORCA program collapse.
But let’s go back to what I wrote in 2009. Remember the much touted and beloved voter vault program? . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. The Lost Irony in the Tax Debate
There is an uncanny irony that has emerged from the bowels of the tax fight – one that is lost in all the banal details of the pitched battle. Democrats have fallen in love with the Bush tax cuts, which they fought so vociferously to block in 2001 and 2003.
While the Democrats are demanding that we raise taxes on the rich, they are stridently demanding that we extend the Bush tax cuts for the rest of American taxpayers (or non-taxpayers). The irony is that Democrats spent several years during the Bush years protesting how the Bush tax cuts were nothing but handouts for the rich. Now, they are correctly asserting that if we don’t extend the Bush tax cuts, low and middle income earners will be severely hit. Woops! . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. Regarding Saxby Chambliss
Saxby Chambliss is waffling around like a dog off its leash for the first time.
He says he does not care about a “twenty year old pledge” he signed. He’s talking about the Americans for Tax Reform pledge that says he pledges not to raise taxes. He has clarified his remarks to mean he wants tax reform that increases revenue through job growth.
Everyone knows that Saxby meant he was happy to raise taxes. Now, under pressure back home, he is waffling. He covets his seat in Washington and is fearful of being primaries. Georgia has primary run-offs, whichs means he can be taken out. He cannot bring himself to say he wants to raise revenue through changing in the tax code that will cause taxes to go up, so he dances around. Behind the scenes, we all know he will work to structure a proposal that increases taxes on Americans, but he’ll cleverly make sure there are enough votes so he can vote against it. He is active and has been actively complicit with Mark Warner (D, VA) and others on raising taxes. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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