We Can't Just Blame Jerry Lewis
By streiff Posted in Republicans — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
“It is time to put the electoral prospect of the majority party ahead of two old men's frail egos.”
The President should have had a tax cut extension to sign on April 17th, but he did not. If you believe news reports, the President should have had a bill, but did not because of the battling egos of Bill Thomas and Chuck Grassley.
Mr. Thomas, who is retiring after this term, is a trench fighter from the House. He rose through the ranks, he can be cold and hostile, but at the end of the day he recognizes big problems and more often than not proposes conservative solutions. Mr. Grassley is a lifer in the Senate and senators are not to be questioned by lowly House members.
Read on.
At the end of the day, should the Republicans lose in November, we can and should blame Congressman Jerry Lewis for killing a budget bill that had earmarks reform (and he will deserve a lot of blame), but we should also blame Senator Grassley. As Stephen Moore reported, both Grassley and Thomas wanted to be at the head table during negotiations. Grassley, much to his credit, insisted that Alternative Minimum Tax reform be in the package. Thomas disagreed, but compromised and said okay. Now, all that remains, according to Moore's sources, are "trivial last-minute issues with a tax impact of less than $1 billion annually," which is nearly inconsequential when dealing with a $2 trillion budget.
Mr. Thomas let Mr. Grassley have his way, thank God, and put AMT reform in the budget. Now it is Mr. Grassley's turn to let Mr.
Thomas lead. These men have two major egos. But it is time to put the electoral prospect of the majority party ahead of two old men's frail egos.
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We Can't Just Blame Jerry Lewis 8 Comments (0 topical, 8 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
They need to permanently change the AMT so we are not left worrying what happens if the Dems get control. Second, the budget is becoming a disaster and without serious cuts I am going to have a hard time supporting further (non-AMT) tax cuts (or extensions). I truly fear what will happen to our economy should we attack Iran.
but that is really because of the unfunded S.S. and especially Medicare liabilities that we are staring at.
The behavior of Lewis is appalling and the growth in pork spending totally undercuts a major tenent of the conservative philosophy, but even if we got rid of all pork tomorrow, we'd be in basically the same budget mess because the pork is a drop in the bucket compared to the entitlement avalanche we are gradually heading into.
We can't repeal entitlements. That is a non-starter among the voting public.
The best we can do it try to eventually get some combination of means-testing and partial privatization.
didn't go over too well either- I think its gonna be a while before that's tried again.
Means-testing is interesting, but if Dems allow it there will start to be cracks in the Seniors united front on entitlements which is the main thing propping the whole system up.
If I had to guess what will actually happen down the road, I'd say a combination of bumping the eligibility age a little bit, increasing taxes (mostly on the so-called Rich) and massive borrowing.
Then you can get other reforms.
Maybe starting out with means-testing is a step - perhaps it can be done much the way the GOP got Medical/Health Savings Accounts - attach it to something the Democrats want.
I think the Democrats would have a very hard time fighting means testing and keeping their ranks together. They should be on the side of means testing. They are completely inconsistent here with all their other beliefs. Under attack, that could not hold up. The Democrats can't go on TV and defend Warren Buffet getting a social security check every month paid for by regressive taxes a blue collar worker is paying in... at least not for long.
in my write up here, i dont just blame him; but i do urge those willing to put pressure on all gop congress members in positions of power to do that and avoid costing the gop votes and possibly seats in november.
its interesting that hardcore gop'ers usually stand out and are well-known, but the status quo crowd like to be anonymous.
and possibly even more interesting, the opposite seems to be true for the democratic party.
It's not as bad as the budget fiasco that Lewis is reponsible for.