Posted on 11/27/2005 10:56:24 AM PST by SmithL
Washington -- More than a decade after the Republican Revolution, when Newt Gingrich became House speaker on the promise to downsize government, Republicans are facing another revolution.
This one is from within.
When Congress returns next month from its Thanksgiving recess, Republican leaders who have never failed to marshal their forces on big party-line votes face the prospect of defeat on tax cuts and spending restraint -- the core issues that have united the party since President Ronald Reagan and gave them their House majority in 1994.
They have lost some tax and spending votes already, and postponed others because of the specter of losing. After a five-year spending spree on everything from the Iraq war to Medicare, deficits are now jeopardizing the tax cuts that were the centerpiece of President Bush's first term.
A move to preserve tax cuts on capital gains and dividends -- the gemstone of the Bush tax cuts for conservatives -- is in trouble in both the House and the Senate. For the first time since Bush took office, House Democrats are united against tax cuts, and Republican moderates are bucking their party leadership.
GOP leaders are pushing a measure to control entitlement spending by shaving Medicaid and food stamps for the poor. But the combination of investor tax cuts and reductions in poverty programs has already led to a series of embarrassing defeats in committee and on the House floor. Republicans are headed for a pre-Christmas showdown that could turn into a political disaster.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
We haven't had big party-line votes in YEARS
A result of RINO infiltration.
We have a Trillion dollar deficit...The war is costing billions per month...Bush wants to legalize the welfare-laden illegal immigrants...
After the tax cut, who do you plan on paying this ongoing and increasing bill???
It takes discipline to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of evils. Since Reagan, nearly all my votes have been all damage-control.
Moderate tax cuts generally increase revenue. The president actually realizes this, if no one else does. OTOH, tax increases, while not increasing revenue after they reach a certain point, do increase the power of government and of the individuals who run it.
Am I to suppose that you support welfare for illegal immigrants, and the spending of billions on other entitlement programs and massive government bureaucracies that both parties fund with such abandon, the Republicans apparently with greater abandon than the Dems?
No...But when we get a tax cut, my taxes (and fees) go up...
When Bush does a flip-flop on amnesty for illegal welfare recipients, I'll go for the tax cuts...All the cuts will do now is shift the tax burden to people that can afford it the least...
How do your taxes go up with tax cuts?
Well I guess it is better to vote for a party that is allowing itself, for bad reasons, to be dragged into socialism, than it is to vote for the other party, which is doing the dragging. But it is very discouraging.
Cutting taxes is the easy part. Cutting spending is much more difficult.
I don't fund the Republican Party anymore.
When in the minority, they actually helped block useless spending. Now they promote it.
If the tax cuts don't stick, I'll sell stock ASAP, and wait for their minority status.
Consider the source and the writer.........
Reagan was the last of the Goldwater Republicans.
President Reagan was true lover of this nation,
and a true lover of this nation's people.
Republicans (those named McCain, Snowe, and
even to a extent President Bush, et al) have
forgotten what a true American Hero
President Reagan was.
It is frustrating to witness.
You've got a point.
As Reagan said: "If not us...who?
If not now....when?"
As I understand it, along with the tax cuts, money given to the states decreased...
Property taxes up, license fees up...Fees for everything went up...New fees were invented...They're not called taxes but they go into the same pot...
The Feds spend far more than they bring in...When they give a tax cut, someone, somewhere will have to pay more...Get rid of the illegals, stop most of the billions in foreign aid, and then talk about tax cuts...
I have heard that before, you are right. However if my supposition is correct that tax cuts increase tax revenue, and I believe it is correct, then it is false justification rather than reality which raises state taxes.
Yes we lost ONE. We won the others or they are on hold. But what gets reported by the Dinosaurs? The multiple wins or the one loss? The complete bitch slapping of the Democrats on Iraq? Nope, the one loss.
Not that they will but the House leaders should send up an even leaner bill and dare the RINOS to pull this crap again.
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