Posted on 12/14/2010 7:15:47 PM PST by pissant
WASHINGTON—The tax deal now before Congress has kicked off the first real debate of the 2012 Republican presidential campaign, with several prospective candidates heralding the package as a victory for taxpayers and others criticizing it as a costly stimulus bill in disguise.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have both come out sharply against the measure, which President Barack Obama hammered out last week with Senate Republican leaders. Both cite the deal's price tag, with Mr. Romney saying it will heap billions more onto the nation's debt load.
Supporting the package are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, all of whom praise the deal as good for the economy and the only way to spare Americans the jolt of a sudden tax increase that otherwise would take effect on Jan. 1.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
So it appears that the race for the GOP nomination comes down to Palin or Romney.
Which of those two would you prefer for the nomination?
Fortunately, they won’t be the only two running who came out against this boondoggle.
But if they are the last two standing, I’ll have to go with Precious.
Palin - yes Mitt - no
If anyone else is thinking of running, they need to start getting their names in the news and taking some serious stands on the issues soon. Thompson was too late to the party last election and as a result, McCain was able to sneak in. If Hunter or Pence are going to have a snowball’s chance in Hell, they’d better find a way to garner some attention.
Hunter ain’t gonna run this time. Pence has been getting tons of press lately.
I'm a news junkie and I haven't really noticed. What have they been saying about him? Has the MSM gone into attack mode on Pence?
When I start seeing signs in the MSM of Pence Derangement Syndrome I might sit up and take notice. Right now he’s not really on the radar screen.
Why would I support a candidate who supports a tax hike? Palin I see is standing against the compromise on principle, but don’t tell me that Mitt Romney is all of a sudden some fiscal conservative.
The tax cuts here do stimulate the economy and an across the board tax hike is a great way to kill the economy.
At least he is smart enough to check Sarah Palin's facebook page every day so he'll know what position he should take so he can pretend to be a conservative. Newt and Huck haven't figured that out yet.
I don’t agree that supporting an across the board tax hike is conservative. Conservative does not mean “whatever Obama supports, we must oppose.” The only thing that’s not conservative in this compromise is the extension of unemployment benefits. To vote for a tax hike on that point alone just doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, the argument that tax cuts raise the deficit didn’t fly when the Democrats said it and doesn’t fly now when so-called conservatives are saying it. Let’s not forget that Mitt Romney did support both TARP and some sort of “stimulus” in 2009.
Again, I see Palin opposing this on principle, though in my opinion a misguided one here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Romney secretly supported a tax hike and this was his back door way to get it. Once taxes go up, it’s real hard for them to come back down.
Those who oppose this are not voting for a tax hike, they are voting against an increase in welfare spending. The Republicans took a pledge NOT to vote for any increases in the deficit and the first act that they do when they come back after the elections is to vote for increases in welfare spending.
This is just the same old same old politics as usual. For every penny in new revenue, the Congress will spend a nickle more than they receive. Pretty soon you run out of other people's money.
I'd rather see a tax hike in the short term than a short term tax cut followed by trillions more in deficit spending. We have to cut the spending. If we don't then huge tax hikes are inevitable.
Fair enough, and I accept that view from Palin (on the unemployment benefits), but not from the person who brought us the predecessor to Obamacare.
Keep in mind that a lot of these deficit projections from tax cuts (not the unemployment benefits) have been consistently overstated by the CBO historically.
If opposition to this compromise is grounded solely based upon the unemployment extension, that’s fair. But I think it’s hypocritical to start complaining about the deficit after we passed TARP, the stimulus, and Obamacare.
Romney is disingenuous and stinks to high heaven on this one.
Nothing that Romney says matters in the least. The man will say anything if he thinks it will give him a political advantage.
Some people are slow. I voted for McGovern and Carter. Then I started working, raising a family and paying taxes and never voted for another democrat again.
Romney is disingenuous and stinks to high heaven on this one.
Romney is disingenuous on everything. He has no core principles. He will say anything or do anything to get elected.
No surprise from Newt Gringrich...who is now trying to become Hispanic
Check out his new website www.theamericano.com
Looks like he is pushing Illegal Alien Amnesty, too. So, this tax deal support is no surprise
Romney-Palin ticket? Palin-Romney?
Palin-Bachmann? Pence-Palin?
I like Ryan, Pence, DeMint, Palin.
I will not vote for Romney under any circumstance. If he’s the nominee, my vote will go to the CP candidate.
Unfortunately, DeMint has repeatedly said he is not running, so at this point I'm taking his word on that.
Ryan and Pence are congresscritters that I like a lot, but thinking they can get much more of the vote than Duncan Hunter did in 2008 is wishful at best.
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