Boehner faces historic decision on 2010 tax cut Christmas treeWashington Examiner
by Hugh Hewitt
He is said to be loyal to his friends and to the traditions of the House, and last week he promoted three long-serving Republicans to the leadership of three committees where various sets of reformers had hoped to see new faces for a new era.
Tea Party activists are outraged and, worse by far, the Pledge to America that Boehner and his colleagues promulgated on a House Web site as binding on the Republicans of the current House seems to be in shreds because of the "tax deal" that turned into a Christmas tree with ethanol and windmills under its branches.
Now Boehner faces a choice. He can in good conscience declare that the deal he agreed to has been buried under a mountain of pork and that, upon further reflection, he ought not to have gone along with it in the first place because of the explicit, specific provisions in the Pledge to America he captained and is now in a position to advance.
MORESo how in Sam Hill does maintaining the status quo (and raising the estate tax from its current level) pump new money into the economy? Now, in order to get the votes of Maria Cantwell of Washington, Barbara Boxer of California, we have added cash payments for wind and solar corporations that were originally part of Obama's first failed stimulus, and then Harkin, Democrat, Iowa, was also able to trade his vote for more ethanol subsidies. That's how they got his vote.
Other 'sweeteners' added to buy leftist Senate votes include subsidies for energy-efficient appliances and mass-transit benefits for employees. And the legislation only gets worse. This legislation is proposed to pack as much of their spending agenda as they can before the Republican cavalry arrives, and going right along with them is the Republican leadership. Ethanol subsidies, wind and solar corporation cash payments in exchange for tax rates staying the same for two years. Obama promises to raise them back up. Finally this deal provides a costly $57 billion 13-month extension of unemployment benefits that is not paid for. This extraneous spending should have been stripped out of what should have be a clean tax bill; instead, the left is only adding more spending and subsidies into it.
Why should we make all these deals when we don't run the show? How can this be a stimulus when public sector unions are getting bailed out? That's part of this as well, the mass-transit unions. If it were just a bill to preserve the tax rates for two years, that would be okay. But with what that's gonna cost and if it happens with Republican participation, then you have to ask yourself, what was the point of the election?
As Ive stated before, we are $100 trillion in debt, including unfunded liabilities. This bill seeks to add $800B to that number. What the H_e double L did the republican leadership promise us? And dont get me started on the Committee Chairmanships Boehner has handed out to his pals. He can choose this week to reaffirm what he and the GOP leadership have said over and over again to conservatives to get their votes -- or we can remedy the situation over the course of the next 2 elections.
