Archives for December 2012

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review kick off their 2012 political awards with honors for Most Overrated Figure, Most Underrated Figure and Most Honest Figure.

House Republicans spent Thursday moving toward passage of what being called Plan B.  That’s the compromise plan offered by House Speaker John Boehner that would raise taxes only on Americans earning more than one million dollars per year.

Even after House passage, the plan faces a very uncertain future since Senate Democrats refuse to consider it and President Obama has said he would veto it if the plan ever reached his desk.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul sees Republicans effectively trapped in these negotiations.  He says the only choice left for the GOP is whether to insist on the best solutions that will be rejected by Democrats and lead the nation over the fiscal cliff or accept some tax hikes to preserve lower rates for well over 99 percent of taxpayers.

“The Republican message needs to be and should continue to be that we’re for lower taxes, not raising taxes on anyone, that it’s bad for the economy to raise taxes,” said Sen. Paul.

So does that mean that Paul would oppose Plan B if it were allowed to come before the U.S. Senate?  Not exactly.

“To tell you the truth I have mixed feelings on it,” said Paul.  “The literal nature of the vote will be that preserve tax rates for most people.  In all reality, I might vote ‘yes’ on it.”

Paul says the sad reality is that Democrats have painted Republicans into a corner and taxes will go up no matter what.

“We’re trapped.  The tax rates are going up if we do nothing.  I would just as soon protect everybody, but if I’m only given the option of protecting some people, it’s going to be hard for me to vote ‘no’ on protecting some people,” said Paul.

But the senator is offering no illusions.  He says whatever happens will damage the economy and will make another recession more likely.

“Nothing really good is going to come from this.  Taxes will go up.  It will be bad for the economy and I think it will lead to more job loss.  I think raising the tax rates may lead to less revenue as well.  So I don’t think anything good comes of this,” said Paul.  “This on top of the Obamacare taxes, on top of the Obamacare regulations, the Dodd-Frank regulations.  It’s a recipe for a recession.  It’s a huge mistake.  I really think six months from now everyone will be regretting that we allowed the president to raise taxes.”

Paul is also not happy with the very limited opportunity for most lawmakers to influence the debate or even their own leaders.

“I would say the average senator over here has zero impact on what’s going to come up for a deal.  So that’s another reason we’re kind of in a box.  We don’t get to vote for anything we want to vote for.  We’re going to vote for whatever big, nasty package comes over,” said Paul.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Daniel Foster of National Review Online are pleased to see Chris Christie won’t have to fend off a challenge from Newark Mayor Cory Booker.  They’re a tad surprised but not worried that actress Ashley Judd is polling close behind Sen. Mitch McConnell in Kentucky.  And they’re disgusted but not surprised that President Obama is suggesting that because America has been through some major tragedies lately that Republicans should stop fighting and agree to his fiscal cliff proposal.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are pleasantly surprised to see The Washington Post editors strongly urging President Obama not to nominate Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense.  They also groan as John Boehner reaches a long way to find common ground with President Obama only to find no interest from Obama in reaching a deal.  And they honor the late Judge Robert Bork by unloading on Ted Kennedy for the brazenly slanderous attacks that sunk Bork’s Supreme Court nomination and ushered character assassination into daily politics.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are relieved to learn that NBC’s Richard Engel and his team have escaped from their abductors in Syria.  They also groan as more supposedly conservative Democrats slink away from their pro-gun promises as push for more gun control grows.  And they react to the news that disgraced former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford may be seeking a return to Congress.  Jim and Greg also raise a glass to the late World War II hero and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye

Recent reports suggest a deal between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner to avert the fiscal cliff may be possible in the coming days.  But if a deal happens, it may well be a result of the Republicans giving the most ground.

Boehner has already offered to raise taxes on those earning more than a million dollars per year, but the Obama administration says that’s not enough.  Obama is reportedly offering to raise the ceiling a bit higher on those protected from a tax increase.  In return, he wants two years of hassle-free debt ceiling increases.

South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney is a member of the House Budget Committee.  He says a good deal could be struck, but he warns that Republicans should choose the fiscal cliff before they embrace an Obama plan that he says increases taxes, government and spending with no signs of reform.

“I think you go over the cliff.  I think you could turn to the American people and say, ‘Look, the president had it in his ability to keep your tax rates low.  Since he didn’t get his pound of flesh out of this small group of people over here, you’re paying for it,” said Mulvaney.  “I think folks will realize that.  I think they know what they voted for.  They voted for somebody who, ultimately, was going to raise their taxes.  One of the best lines I heard during the presidential campaign was Paul Ryan say, ‘You may say you want to raise taxes on the rich right now but be careful because pretty soon the rich is going to be you.'”

Mulvaney says the rich used to mean people who made a million dollars, now that standard down is down to $250,000 and soon it will be $150,000 because deficits remain huge and the appetite for spending remains high.

Mulvaney says Republicans need to realize that Democrats want to go over the cliff because there’s nothing they’re all that committed to saving.

“This is a president who wants to raise taxes.  Think about that for a second.  What are we fighting over?  The Bush tax cuts, which the Democrats hated in the first place,” said Mulvaney.  “They said they didn’t want it.  They said it really didn’t help the middle class.  It was a giveaway to rich Republican friends.  They didn’t want these things in the first place.  So to think now that they’re going to the mat to defend those portions of the Bush tax cuts is a joke.”

And the policy wins for the Democrats wouldn’t stop there, according to Rep. Mulvaney.

“Plus, what else do they get?  They get massive defense reductions – the holy grail for many within the extreme left wing of their party,” he said.

As a result, Mulvaney says we’re right back to where we stood prior to the debt ceiling deal in the summer of 2011.  Mulvaney strongly opposed that deal and says the same principles should still apply to any proposed deal.

“One of the reasons we’re here now is that when we faced almost an identical situation two years ago, Congress simply passed a two-year, short-term fix,” said Mulvaney.  “This so-called fiscal cliff, with the exception of the sequester portion of it, came up in December 2010.  Instead of fixing it then, Congress chose to kick the can down the road.”

Mulvaney is not overly impressed with the plans offered by Boehner on behalf of the GOP, but he believes the Speaker’s biggest error is in assuming Obama and the Democrats want to find common ground.

“You know I’ve been critical of him in the past, critical of some of the things he’s proposed,” said Mulvaney.  “In all frankness, and I’d say this if he were sitting next to me, I think he’s wasting his time.  I don’t think the president wants a deal.”

Mulvaney says there are plenty of ways to make this deal a strong one and he’s even willing to swallow some bad parts to get some good things.  Mulvaney points out that he did vote for one plan to raise the debt ceiling known as Cut, Cap and Balance because it addressed spending and debt in meaningful, long-term ways.  Ultimately, that bill failed in the Senate.  This time, Mulvaney says Democrats must be willing to accept entitlement reforms that might not normally embrace.

“I think you’ve got to see real entitlement reform.  And by the way you can end the conversation there if you take Nancy Pelosi at her word,” he said.  “At her press conference, she said no to entitlement cuts.  She said, ‘Now we have clarity on that.’  If don’t change the way we do entitlement programs it’s unlikely that we’re going to have any type of agreement on this.  If Democrats expect Republicans to compromise on something that is an A-1 priority for us which is taxes and tax rates, they have to be willing to compromise on something that is an A-1 priority for them which is entitlements.  If they take entitlements off the table as Ms. Pelosi did, then I see really no way to get to any type of agreement.”

Specific Medicare reforms pushed by Mulvaney and other Republicans include slowly raising the retirement age, changing the cost of living adjustment and means-testing recipients so that wealthier retirees would either pay more or receive fewer federal benefits.

“So we’ve offered real ideas on how to fix Medicare and similar changes in Social Security.  We’ve talked about the block granting of Medicaid to the states.  So we’ve given specific ideas and instead of getting a negotiated response we get a door slammed in our face and told, ‘No thank you.’  That’s not an avenue toward getting a deal done,” said Mulvaney.

In the wake of the horrific killings in Newtown, Connecticut, many lawmakers have called for new gun restrictions to be enacted – from a renewal of the assault weapons ban to mandatory limits on the size of ammunition clips to new laws prohibiting the mentally ill from owning firearms.

Erich Pratt is communications director at Gun Owners of America.  He tells us why more restrictions will likely lead to more of these tragedies rather than less.  He details why arming teachers and administrators has proven successful elsewhere.  And he explains why he believes the assault weapons ban is grossly misleading, why the size of a killer’s ammunition clip is irrelevant as long as law-abiding people don’t have their rights infringed and why the mental health issue is also largely a red herring.  Listen here for our conversation with Erich Pratt of Gun Owners of America.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review applaud South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for selecting Rep. Tim Scott to replace Jim DeMint in the U.S. Senate.  They also condemn the instant talking points, press releases and Twitter vitriol in the wake of the Connecticut massacre.  And they have fun with the speculation that Michael Dukakis could be the caretaker of John Kerry’s U.S. Senate seat if Kerry becomes Secretary of State and a special election is called.

The Capitol Steps continue their pattern of combining our favorite Christmas melodies with the political and cultural events of our day.  Today their holiday parodies include “The 12 Days of Twitter” and “Temperatures We Have Heard Are High” featuring former Vice President Al Gore.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are pleased to see one consequence of the Obama bungling of Benghazi as Susan Rice withdraws from contention to be the next secretary of state.  We are not excited that John Kerry is poised to replace Hillary Clinton, although Jim is looking forward to the comedy of Kerry as our top diplomat.  And they sound off on ESPN commentator Rob Parker questioning whether rookie NFL sensation Robert Griffin III is truly black since he has a white fiance and might be a Republican.