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QueEx

QueEx

Rising Star
Super Moderator
Re: Norquist: "We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stu

Some Republicans move away from no-tax pledge
_____________________________________

Nothing riles up the tea party
like a broken pledge against raising taxes.​




  • Just ask Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a veteran Georgia Republican who this week turned his back on the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed years ago as a rite of passage in right-wing politics.

    Immediately labeled "worthless" and "a liar" on the website Tea Party Nation, Chambliss symbolizes the political conundrum facing GOP leaders after President Barack Obama's re-election.

    After years of opposing higher taxes on anyone, Republicans now are under pressure to work out a comprehensive agreement to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt.

    That means a compromise with Obama and Democrats, who insist on more tax revenue being part of a package that includes spending cuts and entitlement reforms.
    "To call Chambliss an idiot is to insult people of lower intelligence," blogger Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation wrote. "Chambliss is a poster child for every thing that is wrong with the political class in Washington."

    Later in his post, Phillips sharpened his point: "If you give your word and you break your word, then you are a liar."

    Phillips also called Chambliss the worst RINO -- Republican In Name Only -- in Washington, citing an acronym that conservatives use for those they consider to be sell-out politicians.

    "If you are a worthless Republican politician and you want some good press from the liberal media," Phillips wrote, "all you have to do now days is say you are considering abandoning your pledge not to raise taxes."
    ​



  • Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, have questioned whether the Norquist pledge remains politically relevant in the face of the mounting federal debt and Obama's re-election.


  • GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said "the yin and the yang of this is that we know there has to be revenues." "I haven't met a wealthy Republican or Democrat in Tennessee that's not willing to contribute more as long as they know we solve the problem," Corker noted, adding that reforming entitlement programs such as Medicare, the government-run health care system for senior citizens, was another key part of the package.


SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/23/politics/fiscal-cliff/

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Re: Norquist: "We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stu


Meanwhile​



'No one is caving," Grover Norquist says emphatically and repeatedly when we meet this week in his office in the nation's capital. By "no one" he means congressional Republicans, and by "caving" he means surrendering to Barack Obama's call for tax increases. Republicans are facing an avalanche of pressure from the White House, the media and even many on Wall Street to abandon their antitax principles to avoid a "fiscal cliff."

​



Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324352004578137112355225342.html



 
Re: Norquist: "We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stu


More congressional Republicans break tax
pledge for sake of looming fiscal crisis



The decades-old pledge from the Americans for Tax Reform group has been signed by 238 House members and 41 senators in this Congress and has essentially become inescapable for any Republican seeking statewide or national office over recent election cycles, especially in the Republican-controlled lower chamber.

But, more congressional Republicans appear to be breaking the long-standing pledge to oppose tax increases before returning to Washington on Monday to avert a looming fiscal crisis with a deal that increasingly appears impossible to reach without changes to the tax code:

  • <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">New York Rep. Peter King</span>. "I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss,” King said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress. … The world has changed, and the economic situation is different.”

    The New York congressman said he was opposed to tax increases but that “everything should be on the table” when President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid try to broker a deal.

    “I'm not going to prejudge it, and I'm just saying we should not be taking ironclad positions,” King added. “I have faith that John Boehner can put together a good package.”


  • <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Sen. Lindsey Graham</span>. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday he would break the pledge and accept tax changes to generate more revenue to curb the trillion-dollar federal deficit.

    Graham has suggested earlier that he would be open to changes in taxes, but repeated Sunday only if Democrats are willing to cut federal spending by scaling back entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

    “I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

​


SOURCE
 
Media Buys Into GOP Fiscal Cliff Spin

source: Think Progress

Media Buys Into GOP Spin: Labels Romney-Like Proposal On Revenue Increases A ‘Big Concession’


Since voters rejected Mitt Romney’s $5 trillion tax plan and President Obama won re-election earlier this month, Republicans have expressed interest in raising revenue to avert the coming fiscal cliff. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) immediately signaled that they are open to raising revenue and prominent Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Bob Corker (R-TN) publicly broke with a conservative no-tax pledge, arguing that they would be willing to close loopholes and deductions so long as Democrats embrace spending cuts in Medicare and Social Security and support “structural reforms” in entitlement programs.

And while the GOP’s rhetorical shift represents a break from their dogged opposition to revenue increases during previous budget negotiations, their public “concessions” closely mirror the kind of policies voters overwhelmingly rejected: tax reform that does not increase marginal tax rates on the richest Americans, but includes eliminating tax loopholes and steep entitlement cuts that closely mirror the policies included in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget.

As Steve Benen put it, “on the one hand, Republicans would get the tax rates they want. On the other hand, Republicans would also get the entitlement changes they want.” Yet the party and the media are suddenly presenting the position as “big concession” and are urging Democrats to back entitlement reform:
– SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): “I’m willing to generate revenue. It’s fair to ask my party to put revenue on the table…. I will not raise tax rates to do it. I will cap deductions….But to do this, I just don’t want to promise the spending cuts. I want entitlement reforms.” [This Week, 11/25/2012]

– CNBC’s JOHN HARWOOD: “But you saw yesterday on some of the Sunday shows people like Lindsey Graham making the argument that, ‘yes I’m willing to put tax revenue on the table, not rates but revenue.’ But that’s a big concession by Republicans because they have not been willing to do that before except revenue as it comes from growth.” [Squawk Box, 11/26/2012]

– SEN. BOB CORKER (R-TN): “This is a very easy thing to do technically. What it takes is political courage … I think I’ve shown a willingness to compromise and solve this problem.” [CBS This Morning, 11/26/2012]

– MSNBC’s MIKA BRZEZINSKI: “But there are new signs that lawmakers may be willing to compromise. A growing number of Republicans are slowly backing away from Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge saying they are open to letting revenues rise if Democrats do their part in the budget talks.” [Morning Joe, 11/26/2012]

– CNN’s SOLEDAD O’BRIEN: “Politicians on both sides of the aisle are now signaling that they’re willing to compromise. That includes Republicans who’ve been softening their stance on raising taxes.” [Starting Point, 11/26/2012]
​
In reality, the post-election deal resembles the package Boehner agreed to in 2011, though it was quashed by more conservative House Republicans. Now, the party is once again suggesting that new revenue should be part of a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff, but only if that revenue coincides with a lowering of tax rates. The pitch is very similar to the plan presented by Romney, which was supposed to boost growth while lowering taxes and making up the revenue from closing loopholes:

Fortunately, President Obama has rejected this kind of approach, saying during a press conference in November that, “What I will not do is to have a process that is vague, that says we’re going to sorta-kinda raise revenue through dynamic scoring or closing loopholes that have not been identified.”
 




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‘The Simpsons’ Tries to Explain the Fiscal Cliff: It’s About Giving the Rich ‘All th


‘The Simpsons’ Tries to Explain the Fiscal Cliff: It’s About Giving the Rich ‘All the Money’



‘The Simpsons’ Tries to Explain the Fiscal Cliff: It’s About Giving the Rich ‘All the Money’

“The Simpsons” is the longest-running scripted show in American history, and has won countless awards since its inception. It remains one of the most-watched programs in the country, and while everyone knows the characters get into ridiculous situations, its approach to politics is noteworthy. Many of its viewers likely don’t spend hours keeping up-to-date with current events, and will understand the show as an exaggerated, satirical form of reality (particularly if it reinforces a popular narrative).

To explain the impending “fiscal cliff” — a combination of the Bush tax rates expiring and automatic spending cuts to vital institutions like the military — an upcoming episode of “The Simpsons” (a teaser clip posted Tuesday is below) put it simply: If you don’t give the rich “all the money,” they’ll drive you off a cliff.

The scene opens with a crack of thunder and a sign reading “rape now bad” as the camera zooms into a stately Republican mansion.

Surrounded by a fallen “Romney-Ryan” posters, books reading “binder,” “women,” and ‘Nate Silver Can’t Add,” stereotypical wealthy villain Mr. Burns explains:


“Think of the economy as a car and the rich man is the driver. If you don’t give the driver all the money, he will drive you over a cliff. It’s just common sense…Furthermore, rich people feel things more deeply than the common man.”

The scene then cuts to an image of the local “billionaires club” on election night, as women wail and a man holds a gun to his head.

To adapt to the changing times, Burns then says he embraces immigration reform.

“I have a progressive proposal to let into this country 200 grimy Irishmen a year. I’ve got lots of potatoes that need peeling and staples to be mucked out,” he remarks.

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Re: Norquist: "We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stu

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Re: Norquist: "We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stu

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Re: Norquist: "We want the Ryan budget. ... We just need a president to sign this stu





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