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Tag: new revenue

Congressional GOP Less Willing To Compromise Than Rick Perry

Republicans in Congress made plain during the debt ceiling fight that they will never accept tax increases or new revenue of any kind, even if it is outweighed hugely by reduced spending. This apparently puts them to the right of even Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Tea Party champion and Republican presidential flavor of the month:

To hear him tell it on the presidential campaign trail, Gov. Rick Perry has never met a tax increase he liked.

But at home, over a political career that reaches back to the oil price shocks of the 1980s, Mr. Perry has embraced billions of dollars worth of them — including a $528 million tax increase approved in 1990, after he defected to the Republican Party.

The biggest tax increases came early in his career, before anyone used the phrase “Tea Party” to describe a potent political movement. But a few weeks ago, Mr. Perry also signed into law an online sales tax measure that the state says will raise $60 million over the next five years.

Grover Norquist’s influential organization, Americans for Tax Reform, calls the measure a dreaded “new tax.” Mr. Perry opposed it as a stand-alone measure, but this summer it was tucked into a must-pass bill during a legislative session that otherwise saw deep budget cuts.

The past votes and more recent tax legislation are sure to get a new look from opponents as Mr. Perry, now a Republican front-runner, promotes his tax-cuttin’, budget-slashin’ ways as an antidote to the ailing economy and a president he attacks as recklessly profligate.

“To the extent that he tries to oversell this in a campaign, people are going to pick at it,” said Jim Henson, a political scientist at the University of Texas. “The question is, will his opponents be able to outmaneuver him to create a high level of dissonance between his record and what he says.”

So even Perry has vulnerabilities in his record. But the real takeaway here is the incredible stubbornness of the House GOP and its leaders.

Gang of Six Talks Excite Pundits, Dismay Left

The Gang of Six is back:

The president appeared in the White House briefing room hours after the “Gang of Six” briefed senators on its plan to cut the deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years, in part by raising $1 trillion in new revenue. Obama’s decision to align himself with the Senate package aims to further marginalize House Republicans, who have resisted any debt plan that includes new revenues.

“We have a Democratic president and administration that is prepared to sign a tough package that includes both spending cuts, modifications to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare that would strengthen those systems and allow them to move forward, and would include a revenue component,” Obama said. “We now have a bipartisan group of senators who agree with that balanced approach. And we’ve got the American people who agree with that balanced approach.”

The introduction of a bipartisan deficit-cutting plan, which was negotiated over the past seven months, revived hopes yet again of striking a “grand bargain” ahead of the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit.

But with only two weeks remaining, its late entry into the debt negotiations could derail the proposal.

There are reportedly over 50 senators–and perhaps as many as 60–on board with the plan. With Bill Clinton ratcheting up pressure on Republicans Monday evening by implying Obama has the constitutional option available to him, a precious few conservatives may finally be coming around to a sane deal.

President Obama praised the development, calling the plan “a very significant step” toward “the potential for bipartisan consensus,” as the plan is “broadly consistent” with his desire for a package that mixes big spending cuts with revenue raisers without gutting Medicare and Social Security.

But Obama’s very public triangulation–a willingness to, Bill Clinton style, ostentatiously undercut his own party’s priorities–is earning him some (expected) flak from the left:

“While details are sketchy, the “Gang of 6″ proposal appears to ask seniors, the middle class and the poor to bear the burden of deficit reduction, with cuts to Social Security benefits, billions in stealth cuts to be named later, and no real effort to make corporations and millionaires pay their fair share….We cannot allow a minority of Tea Party led Republicans in the House to hold our nation’s economy hostage in order to protect tax breaks for the rich and corporations, while forcing cuts to programs families depend on. The President and Democrats in Congress must stand up for everyday Americans and not give into politicians more interested in protecting their corporate backers than ensuring our economy recovers,” said Justin Ruben, executive director of Moveon.org.

“This terrible plan could cut Medicare and Medicaid to unsustainably low levels and put seniors’ well-being at risk. Anyone who wants to pass it through Congress should remember that more than 70 House Democrats have already pledged their opposition, and more are signing on every day,” intoned co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona.

Watch for a Nancy Pelosi statement on the deal–her House caucus is dominated by the Progressive Caucus to a much greater extent than when Dems had the majority (most of those who lost their reelection bids were conservative Blue Dogs) and many of their votes will be needed for any deal that brings more money into government coffers, even if it does so through a net tax decrease.