Two major fiscal debates are playing out in Congress – over the tax rate compromise and the proposed $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package. Why are more and more House Republicans souring on the tax compromise? What earmark-type clutter is now part of the package? We ask Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a key member of the House Appropriations Committee. Kingston also rails against the omnibus bill, calling it a pork-laden monstrosity. He also explains how the Appropriations Committee will act differently when the GOP controls it next year.
Archives for December 15, 2010
Politics and the Gulag
Just one week after a political prisoner in China was named the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the most prominent political prisoner in Russia faces another trumped up sentence. Energy company executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky is wrapping up an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia but is about to be kept there another 12 years as a sham trial in Russia plays out. So how did this happen? Why is Khodorkovsky being treated like a character out of a Solzhenitsyn novel? What does this case tell us about Vladimir Putin’s Russia? What do the Russian people think about this? Will pressure from Sen. John McCain and others make any difference at this latest trial? We ask Sandy Saunders, the lead U.S. attorney for Khodorkovsky.
Three Martini Lunch 12/15/10
Greg Corombos and National Review’s Jim Geraghty hail the fierce GOP opposition to the ridiculously pork-laden omnibus spending bill. They also rip Time magazine for ignoring the Tea Party as the biggest story of the year and grumble about three Republican presidential debate already being scheduled in the first half of 2011.