Want To Lose In November? Forget Your Roots
That’s the message the Wall Street Journal sends to congressional Republicans, in particular Rep. Jerry Lewis of the House Appropriation Committee. While Republicans have found a distinctive, mostly united voice on foreign policy, we’ve completely destroyed our domestic principles, and nowhere more so than in the area of spending.
As the Journal says:
If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That’s when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline.
Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can’t be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out “earmarks” like a bartender offering drinks on the house. The chief culprits are the House Appropriators, led by Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California and his 13 subcommittee chairmen known as “cardinals.” If Republicans lose the House–and they are well on their way–Mr. Lewis deserves the moniker of the minority maker.
For weeks, the Republican Study Committee, a group of fiscally conservative Members, had been negotiating a spending outline with the House leadership. But when they finally struck a deal last week, Mr. Lewis refused to go along and threatened to defeat the budget on the House floor if Speaker Denny Hastert brought it up. With Democrats opposing the budget as a matter of party unity, GOP leaders gave up and left town for Easter recess without a vote on their budget blueprint for 2007.
Sadly, given the well-known propensity of Democrats to find a solution in increased government spending for every potential problem, we can’t even hope that a change will stop the train wreck. At least we’ll know what we’re getting, though:
A category five political storm is building in GOP precincts around the country, and it is going to blow Republicans right out of the majority in November if they don’t soon give their supporters some reason to re-elect them. So far this year they’ve passed limits on free speech that liberals love, but they haven’t been able to extend the wildly successful 2003 tax cuts by even a mere two years. And now they won’t even allow a vote on budget reforms that their own President and a majority of their own Members support.
At the current pace, a Democratic majority in Congress would be preferable, if only for reasons of truth in advertising.
At this point, the Republican party is no longer the fiscally responsible party. In fact, I’d say they waste just as much if not more money than the Democratic party. My favorites are all of these pork-barrel projects like the Bridge to Nowhere.
No doubt about that. The problem is I see little to indicate the Democrats would spend any less. I find it very discouraging. Having the Democrats control Congress might not be the worst thing for spending, if only because the animosity between them and the administration might lead to gridlock, and at least when politicians can’t agree on anything, they can’t spend as much as they’d like either.
Losing might also remind a few Republicans how they got to Washington in the first place.
Democrats are critisized as being “tax and spend” liberals, while the Bush administration has proved itself to be made up of “cut taxes and spend” republicans, resulting in a situation where there’s no money to pay for all the handouts they think up. They have literally nothing for moderates.
Ted Stevens should be given an honorable mention here, not only for the aforementioned bridge, but for so many other pork – barrel projects that have been funded for Alaska on his watch. He gives Robert Byrd a good run for the money in this regard.
With all the much justified griping we should remember that revenues are UP, not down due to the tax cuts… and up SHARPLY. Don’t believe it? Look into it. Personally I’m optimistic. This backlash, if it is that, is coming at just the right time. There is a sense of urgency and the PorkBusters, so maligned, are sticking to their guns. The WSJ is right on on the disgrace of the budget vote. We shall see if the lessons are sinking in. However, as many folks have observed, it would be better to have Democrats who are frank in their profligacy than Republicans who claim restraint and practice Byzantine levels of spending. Doubt either House will change hands but a close call would concentrate some minds. Not TOO close though.
I’d rather spend money on domestic social programs (like my education) than a never-ending quagmire on the other side of the planet.
It is easy to be a chest-thumper about fiscal responsibility, but when the hard choices have to be made, most people dodge the issues. If you would like spending to be reduced, where should it be cut? Military spending? Veteran’s benefits? Katrina relief? Tsumani aid? If you think that taxes should be raised, who should get the bill?
My own answer to these questions is that aside from some of the more egregious earmarks (e.g., the Bridges to Nowhere, etc.), there are not many places where spending can be cut substantially without causing undue harm. The caveat is that I do not know enough about military spending to know if there is any slack there.
However, I think the government should raise taxes in three ways: reexamine the tax credits which will go to oil companies; increase the tax on gasoline; and raise marginal tax rates on income, dividends, and capital gains. The latter two would affect me personally, and I think those increases are equitable. (My father once told me “may you always pay a lot of taxes.”)
Herman Talmadge said “don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree.” I am eager to hear how those who complain about the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush administration – as I do – would propose to solve the problem.
Sometime in the very near future I hope to offer my own suggestions in a post…
Well, one of the more obvious targets would be to start preventing US – based companies from incorporating themselves in other countries, those that specifically charge no corporate income tax on any profits.
Many large corporations – Microsoft being one recent example (in Ireland) – have done this little trick, thereby reaping the profits on their products sold here, while dodging most of the taxes by incorporating elsewhere.
This is a disgraceful practice, and the fact that we all suffer for these types of actions make it imperative that this loophole be closed ASAP.
Bill Gates – Time Man of the Year (What?).