As it turns out, Dubya’s profligate ways have forced Congress to increase the federal debt limit (so as to avoid a government default) in the very week they mull over his (now Voinovich-friendly) tax giveaway for the rich. Coincidence? I think not.
Category: Congress
Read Their Lips.
With the Dubya dividend debacle virtually a done deal, the Democratic field rethinks their election strategies in lieu of the Bush tax cuts. Given the inroads Dubya’s making into Dem territory (well, at least according to Fox News), hopefully Kerry, Edwards, Dean & co. will realize the only way to play it is straight – the tax cuts are a horrible idea and they need to be repealed.
Deficit, Schmeficit.
Cheney breaks the tie as the Senate GOP pass the third-largest tax cut in history, one that includes a three-year moratorium on dividend taxes. Dems Zell Miller and Ben Nelson (and eventually Evan Bayh) joined the Republicans in passing the cut. (Republicans McCain, Chafee, and Snowe were opposed.) Of course, this tax giveaway for the rich does nothing to address the largest budget deficit in history…but that’s a problem for Dubya’s successors, isn’t it? And children don’t vote anyway.
Bait and Switch.
Republicans inadvertently stall the Dubya tax cut by putting the wrong number on the bill, thus blunting the force of the President’s arm-twisting US tour. It’s the little things that get ya.
The GOP Tax Pact.
With conservatives chomping at the bit to reduce capital gains taxes, the Senate GOP craft a compromise bill that appeases moderate holdouts like Senator Snowe. As I’ve said before, any tax cut given the current state of the economy and our budget deficits is a bad idea. And given how much of the heavy lifting Senator Snowe has already done, I’m surprised more Dems aren’t kicking up a fuss right now.
At long last.
Dubya may have tied up the release of the Reagan papers indefinitely (hmm, whatever for?), but at least one branch of government has the courage to air their dirty laundry. Senators Susan Collins and Carl Levin announce the release of the McCarthy hearing transcripts (available here.) There’s probably a number of good dissertation topics in there…
Feed the Rich, or else.
What do we want? Tax breaks for the rich! When do we want ’em? Now! Brushing up on his cheerleader skills in Arkansas (as a not-so-veiled threat to Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln), Dubya demands that Congress speed up passage of his fatcat cut. But so far, the all stick and no carrot tactics of the Bushies are only continuing to tick off GOP moderates like Olympia Snowe.
Time Bandits.
With the House GOP prepared to make a deal with moderates, the White House unrolls a new pitch for the “future-embezzling” Dubya dividend debacle. Arguing that bigger is better on the assumption that there’s a 1-1 relationship between low taxes and more jobs, Dubya’s simplistic proposition has even ticked off GOP economists. (As one Republican put it when queried whether Dubya’s fuzzy math makes sense, “I suppose it matters whether you think economics matters.”) Meanwhile, Bill “kittenkiller” Frist takes the blame for congressional in-fighting on the size of the tax cut.
Hedging their Bets.
In the wake of Dubya’s embrace of preemption, historian Joyce Appleby wonders whatever happened to Congress as a center of foreign policy. As James Madison put it, “The constitution supposes, what the History of all Govts demonstrates, that the Ex. is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legisl. But the Doctrines lately advanced strike at the root of all these provisions, and will deposit the peace of the Country in that Department which the Constitution distrusts as most ready without cause to renounce it.” Looks like recent experience has proven him right.
War on the Floor.
As the Republican rift over the Dubya tax cut widens, conservatives prepare to oust anti-cut GOP moderates like Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Specter. As a result, Specter tries to shore up his freak-show-right creds by joining Majority Leader Bill Frist in defending Rick Santorum’s outbreak of gaybashing (calling Santorum a “voice for inclusion and compassion” is a bit much, isn’t it?). Snowe and Chafee, for their part, have condemned Santorum’s remarks (Via Medley.) While I’m all for the GOP imploding, isnt it about time for the Dems to pile on the heat? To paraphrase Carville, when your opponent is drowning, throw him an anvil.