Yearning to take the deal

Yearning to take the deal

by digby

So Tom Coburn is launching a full blown assault on Grover's no-tax pledge, proclaiming the "starve the beast" strategy has failed:


[R]ather than forcing Republicans to bow to him, Mr. Norquist is the one who is increasingly isolated politically. [...] The problem with the pledge is that it is powerless to prevent future automatic tax increases and has failed to restrain past spending. The “starve the beast” strategy to shrink the size of the federal government by cutting revenue but not spending was a disaster. Every dollar we borrow is a tax increase on the next generation.

And in a debt crisis, higher interest rates and the debasement of our currency would be additional tax hikes. In that sense, no one is doing more to violate the spirit of the pledge than Mr. Norquist himself, who is asking Republicans to reject the very type of agreement that could prevent future tax increases.


I think Coburn misunderstands Norquist's intentions, but then he's not the brightest bulb. However Coburn isn't the only one bucking Norquist and I suspect that some of these others are seeing what we've been seeing for some time now --- a willingness on the part of Democrats to slash the safety net programs in exchange for some minor tax increases on the wealthy and some phony loophole closing. That is the best deal they've ever been offered and some of them aren't so stupid that they don't know it. The Democrats, after all, are offering up their greatest political achievement. The Republicans would be offering up insignificant portion of the tax cuts that George W. Bush put through in 2001.

At some point they are going to take yes for an answer.

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