-
The Republican primary nomination will not be conducted in a vacuum. As much as the social conservatives are unimpressed by McCain, they will swallow hard and support him if it keeps Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the White House.
If you don't think this will be a major dynamic in the Republican primary and turnout, you're not paying attention.Posted at November 23, 2005 6:14 PM in response to The McCain Mirage
-
Just Karl:
The Dem's would be foolish not to follow your idea of a graduated tax system. I would only add to it by stating that during the first couple of years we'd give people the option to use the traditional tax code or the graduated code. That would further serve to defang the defenders of the current system who might try to claim that an abrupt shift would throw the system into shock.
The R's took the D's idea of a Dept of Homeland Security and made it there own. If the D's coopt the tax reform issue of the R's it would be a great achievement. Especially since it deals with the federal budget, but doesn't focus on the Democratic stereotype of being big spenders.Posted at October 28, 2005 4:26 AM in response to Tax Reform
-
If Democrats truly are progressive and don't want the term to be something more than a synonym for liberal, they ought to take the tax reform debate away from Republicans and focus on gaining support from economic conservatives.
Economic conservatives are fed up with unwise Republican spending. The Alaskan bridge-to-nowhere, highlighted by the failed Coburn Amendment, has become the equivalent of John Kerry's $87 billion flip-flop - a perfect illustration of Republican irresponsibility that Joe Six Pack can understand. (As a side note, the Coburn Amendment would have repealed the $250 million for the pork barrel bridge. It failed 82-15 which meant it had bipartisan support. Why in the world did the D's not support it thus providing them with some tangible proof that they are the party of prudent spending?)
Proposing a new tax code that when printed in full doesn't resemble the size and weight of a cinder block would go a long way to shedding the misconception that Democrats want big bureaucratic government.
Posted at October 22, 2005 5:18 AM in response to The Era of Big Government
-
"This is offtopic and a troll. Please don't insert non sequiturs like this into discussions.
George Bush is a demonstrated coward and draftdodger..."
It takes a special kind of hypocrite to accomplish the feat in back-to-back sentences.
Posted at August 1, 2005 7:23 PM in response to The Indispensable Man, Eh?
-
"Meanwhile, the pro-Rove spin regarding Bob Novak's column is that this matter of Joe Wilson's wife just sort of came up casually in a conversation that was focused on something else. It's not as if Rove was running around telling everyone he could find that Wilson's wife was at the CIA."
I thought the latest story is that Novak told Rove, not the other way around.Posted at July 16, 2005 1:44 PM in response to Accidents Happen, Again and Again
-
Nathan,
Can we back up here a minute? I really don't think this has as much to do with health care per se, as it does with overall government subsidies.
You mentioned the $250 million the US states were willing to pony up for this plant alone. It probably would have been fair to also point out the $125 million Ontario is shelling out, as this tidy sum is not a rounding error in the total equation. Mix in about $400 million for the entire Canadian auto sector (parts suppliers, etc) in the province, and it would appear the Canadians were the highest bidding government to buy the plant location.
This is not a blueprint for building a long lasting economy if replicated throughout every industry. Ultimately the average taxpayer loses out when the government gives up tax revenue. Remember, the costs don't go away - the bill is just paid by someone else. Toyota stockholders are richer today due to Canadian generosity.
One last note. I don't know if Toyota agrees with your assessment that our education system is all that substandard. If it did, it probably wouldn't be breaking ground on its new San Antonio Tundra plant this year.
Posted at July 10, 2005 11:08 AM in response to National Health Care as Economic Advantage
