Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General The Growing Revolt Against Grover Norquist

Right hand doesn't know what other right hand is doing?


HuffPost

Here are some of the latest dispatches from the cliff front:

Rank-and-File Republicans Break with GOP Leaders

Sen. Tom Coburn (OK) said today that he would prefer to raise tax rates rather than close loopholes and limit deductions, as Boehner as proposed.

Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) said, we “should not even be questioning that we will ultimately raise taxes on low- to middle-income people.” Snowe urged immediate passage of a bill extending middle class tax cuts.

Rep. Tom Cole (OK), who led the House GOP’s election arm from 2006 to 2008, was one of the first top Republicans to break with leadership. In a private leadership meeting, he urged Republicans to immediately pass a middle class tax cut extension and fight about the rest later.

Rep. Kay Granger (TX) joined with Cole, saying an immediate extension of middle class tax cuts is “just the right thing to do.”

Reps. Mary Bono Mack (CA) and Bob Dold (IL) also joined with Cole in advocating an immediate extension of middle class tax cuts.

Rep. Walter Jones (NC) said yesterday that if there’s no progress toward a deal by the end of next week, he may join with Democrats in signing on to a procedural move that would allow them to bring a middle class tax cut-only bill to the House floor over the objections of Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

Rep. Mike Simpson (ID) went even further than his colleagues regarding tax rates for the wealthiest, saying, ”I wouldn’t have a problem with letting those tax rates go up.“

Reps. Steven LaTourette (OH) and Charlie Bass (NH) said they would support higher taxes on the wealthy if paired with deficit reduction through spending cuts, which is precisely the balanced approach advocated by the president.
Nearly four dozen Republican House members wrote a letter to Boehner calling on him to put “all options” on taxes on the table.

BOTTOM LINE: The president is holding firm on his insistence that tax rates for the wealthy must increase, as he should given the mandate he won on this issue in the election. Meanwhile, the bottom is falling out from under GOP leaders as their anti-tax coalition begins to crumble.

I don't know if Mary Bono's actions have any clout - she lost her District to a Democrat on November 6th.

But she is still there until the end of her term(along with Rep. Olynpia Snow). So won't she be able to vote on this?

Thanks for that update, Steve, it warms my heart to see that voters have forced change on the stubborn Republican Party.

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"Was the French Revolution a Good Thing or a Bad Thing?"

Zhou Enlai : "It's still too early to tell."

If Grover Norquist were correct that low taxes on the wealthy created jobs, then we ought to be swimming in new jobs ever since Reagan. Ditto for Laffer and his infamous curve to nothing true at all.

Recently, corporations are paying dividends early, and so many of the Uber Rich will get their first quarter dividends early and avoid the cliff induced higher taxes. Sheldon Adelson alone will reap $180 Million in tax savings from this beneficence of early dividend payments. Huffington Post, Fiscal Cliff Avoidance Equals Tax Savings for Big Republican Contributor

Of course, the government will lose any tax benefit from a restructuring of capital gains taxes, but what's a little more from the fiscal shenanigans game in anticipation of a fiscal molehill? After all, the "cliff" means going back to the tax rates of the Clinton Administration when we were making jobs, minting millionaires, and had a strong economy and a surplus in the Treasury.

Once again the wealthy abandon their water carriers: Top Two Percent To GOP: Tax Us; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...=FeatureTitle&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

From a link on another thread...

From Steve's link...

So the answer, Senator DeMint, is no. It's not rocket science. it's mythology.

Grover who?

Saw him on ABC This Week. No matter what question posed, all he could do was parrot his mantra.He looked as if he was missing his script.