We all agree that a temporary payroll tax cut without permanently restructuring Social Security, along with its funding source, is a ludicrous idea. Sadly, Democrats would rather play politics by introducing this inane stimulus measure, in an attempt to get Republicans to vote against a tax cut. For far too long, the extension of the payroll tax cut was coupled with more entitlement spending, in | Read More »
If the traditional description of the political parties wasn’t evident enough before the payroll tax/UI kerfuffle, it certainly is now: Democrats are evil and Republicans are stupid. Democrats are evil for insidiously driving up the deficit, perpetuating unemployment, lying about Social Security and passing short-term unworkable Social Security tax holidays for political gain. Republicans are stupid for a) having Mitch McConnell as Senate Leader and | Read More »
“We need to stop forcing Republicans to face the grim choice between blocking a tax cut and fighting against more entitlement and deficit spending.” There are two inexorable political realities at this point: the payroll tax cut must be extended and those who block it will incur a needless political reprisal. To that end, Republicans must outflank the Democrats on the payroll tax cut, while | Read More »
If I had voted for a bill that not only screwed my party, but also screwed the country, I would keep a low profile. If I had passed a bill that was unworkable for businesses and helped preserve the entities that precipitated the housing crisis, I wouldn’t show my face in public for a while. Evidently, there are five GOP senators, some of which have | Read More »
The Senate-passed payroll tax cut extenders package was already on the ropes with House Republicans over the weekend. The bill (HR 3630) offers a pathetic two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. In addition, it extends long-term unemployment benefits for the ninth time, along with the annual Medicare doc fix. The bill gutted all House-passed reforms to medicare and unemployment insurance, while offsetting the cost | Read More »
“The Senate action was akin to grounding into a triple play for Team GOP, yet the underlying bill passed with unanimous consent.” Over the weekend, Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans obviated the superior leverage of House Republicans by passing a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, along with a clean extension (no reforms and offsets) of doc fix and unemployment benefits. In a premature | Read More »
This is what we get from a new House Republican majority? Call me naive, but from the onset of this legislative session I really expected we would witness some transformational change in the way Washington does business. That was obviously a foolish expectation. GOP leaders agreed last night to pass the omnibus bill with largely the same provisions as the one they introduced yesterday. After | Read More »
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