Alienating That Last Component Of The Base....
Newsweek's Howard Fineman, who covered (better than just about anyone) Texas Gov. George W. Bush's sophisticated pre-primary courtship of the Republican base, wrote in a web column today that the nomination of Harriet Miers was the "final insult" to religious conservatives long accustomed to being the wallflower of the party.
Fineman:
"Supply-siders -- This is the one faction that the president has yet to disappoint in a major way. He pushed through two major tax cuts, and is pushing more -- targeted ones -- in the wake of Katrina. Deep in their collective memory bank, Bush and Rove remember what happened when Daddy moved his lips and raised taxes. But now that the son has been reelected, will he move his lips, too?"
He may have written too quickly. Check out the reactions from supply-siders to the trial balloons issuing from the president's tax reform panel this week.
In public statements on 10/11, the panel suggested that it favored freeing up about $100B to pay for a universally-desired fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax. They'd do it by capping the very popular mortgage interest deduction at a limit less than the current $1M for first home buyers.
Here's one reaction from a big conservative free-market group, in an e-mail statement:
"A preliminary analysis by the Free Enterprise Fund of the publicly available information indicates the panel is set to recommend a massive tax hike on the U.S. middle class to pay for tax relief on upper-income elites, particularly those who live in high-tax states like New York and California."
When setting up the panel -- and note that it's an adivsory "panel" and not a precedent-setting "commission" -- The White House set expectations quite high, though they disappointed conservatives who believe that tax cuts spur growth -- and thus drive revenue to the Treasury -- by insisting that the panel's recommendation be revenue neutral. [MARC AMBINDER]
The Bush administration has politicized the Katrina relief effort - screaming cuts to entitlement programs must be made to pay for the bill. And the attacks on the middle-class keep coming with today's call for repealing deductions on home mortages. Notice that not a word was said about keeping the estate tax. In bed with some of America's richest families - like the Walton's - the drive to repeal the estate tax remains a goal for the White House.
I can't think of anything more horrible that pitting the middle-class against the middle-class. Katrina families need help, but it's going to come at the expense of programs that help the middle-class under Bush's regime.
BK06, If you're going to bash repealing the deduction on home mortgages, at least get your facts straight. The Tax Advisory Council recommended reducing the cap of the mortgage deduction rate from $1million to $350k. This does not hurt the middle class as most could never afford that kind of mortgage. This is aimed squarely at the upper class. It's also worth noting that both Democrats and Republicans sit on this council.
Either way you cut it though, this Tax Advisory Panel simply did nothing. Our tax code is horrendous and broken. The only ones that benefit from it are politicians and it harms citizens and businesses. For them not to seriously consider the Flat Tax or John Linder's Fair Tax proposal in favor of what they recommended is a joke of monumental proportions.
"a massive tax hike on the U.S. middle class to pay for tax relief on upper-income elites"
This is nothing new for the Republican party.
"conservatives who believe that tax cuts spur growth -- and thus drive revenue to the Treasury"
History has shown quite clearly that this is not the case. When will this fanstasy die?
Enough of envy,,, time for the Fair Tax
If you don't believe that the GOP only favors cutting taxes when it helps the rich then look at the taxes they have and haven't cut. They cut taxes on corporate dividends, taxes on capital gains, and estate taxes - all tax cuts that benefit the wealthy. When a cut in the federal gas tax was recently suggested to offset soaring gas prices, the GOP demurred, and the proposal was DOA.
Bush is essentially a corporatist aristocrat, sometimes called a "moderate" Republican. Look at him through that lens and it's easy to predict when he'll let conservatives down and when he won't. He signed McCain-Feingold because it entrenched the establishment by preventing criticism of congressmen 60 days before an election and doubled the amount of money you can give to a candidate (mostly benefitting incumbents). He favors gutting immigration laws because it greatly reduces the price of labor and increases the gap between rich and poor, and the wealthy are all for that.
This is why the Miers nomination is so important. Social conservatives have continually been stiffed by this administration: he has supported affirmative action (see Grutter v Bollinger) and minority set-asides (see the latest Katrina reconstruction news) and has gutted immigration laws. I challenge anybody to name one thing of significance Bush has done for social conservatives. Faith-based initiatives? DOA. Cuts in stem cell research? Scraps from the table.
And now Bush goes and nominates a cipher for the court. It could be because he needs a cipher to get past the liberals - or because he needs a cipher to sneak past conservatives.
Mark my words: if either of Bush's SC nominees are disappointments, this Republican coalition is over, and there is no group they can woo to replace those who are religious, favor smaller gov't, fiscal sanity, and opposed to affirmative action and excessive immigration.