The conservative backlash at ‘Taxby’ begins
"How many people are thinking of running against me?"
And the counterattack against Saxby Chambliss — “Taxby”, they’re already calling him on Twitter — has begun in full force.
“Nothing that Chambliss does now can save him from his inevitable fate.
He is doomed beyond all hope of redemption.
Here’s the point: A Republican in a purple state can go wobbly without much fear of reprisal. But if a Republican in a deep-red state like Georgia is permitted to get away with flaunting his “bipartisanship” on such a fundamental issue, then every GOP senator might be tempted to join the RINO Caucus, becoming a bunch of treacherous self-serving sellouts like Arlen Specter and Lisa Murkowski.”
From Daniel Horowitz at Red State, writing with admirable frankness about what’s really at stake here:
“Saxby’s comments are quite instructive for conservatives as we confront a Republican Party that is committed to capitulation. This imbroglio over the fiscal cliff was never about the budget –- spending or revenue. It is about the fundamental role of government in a constitutional republic that inherently restrains the size of government. As such, even if raising taxes on the rich would be fair (it’s not; they already pay 37% of the income taxes), and even if it would be economically prudent; it is the wrong thing to do. Any additional revenue would be used to grow the size of government at a time when it needs to be cut in half. On this core issue, Republicans like Chambliss and Graham side with Democrats. We side with the Constitution.
That’s why this has never been about Norquist and his tax pledge. If Democrats would genuinely agree to a deal that would wind down the welfare and entitlement programs and eliminate full departments of the executive branch, conservatives would reluctantly go along with some form of revenue increases. Raising taxes is unfair and counterintuitive, but if that is what it would take to get Democrats to come onboard with our efforts to shrink government, then it would be a deal worth making.
The real narrative here is that Democrats will never agree to downsize the budget in any consequential way. And with Republicans like Saxby Chambliss, why should they?”
And Georgian Jason Pye, writing in United Liberty:
The fight over the budget in Washington is about scaling back government. Unfortunately, Chambliss has been part of the problem during his two terms in the Senate. He has been part of the political class that has spent too much and now wants to take his fiscal irresponsibility out on of taxpayers. It’s time for Chambliss and others like him to go. Here’s hoping an electable fiscal conservative steps up to the plate in Georgia.
– Jay Bookman
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354 comments Add your comment
Brosephus™
November 26th, 2012
4:26 pm
Well, time will tell. EVERY returning troll we’ve had here denies they’ve been here before.
Could be that they all have multiple personality complexes. They’re correct if that personality has never been here before.
————–
Off topic but the video is funny as hell…
Wanna know how to take your 5 minute segment on Fox News and cut it in half??? Hit the interviewer with facts while giving them a gut punch of rhetoric.
What happens when you agree to come on Fox News and then proceed to hammer the network for serving as a “wing of the Republican Party?”
Answer: You don’t stay on the air too long.
Doggone/GA
November 26th, 2012
4:27 pm
“Hosef is mad too!”
Mad? Remind me to check and see if I’m mad. Right now I’m laughing to hard to be sure.
RF
November 26th, 2012
4:27 pm
“I am working! Jesus! Isn’t it ever enough for you leeches?!”
Yes, and so are we. But we’re sick and tired of everyone on your side and some on the other acting like the rich are ever so benevolent and beyond feeling a little pinch in all of this. We’re tired that while our incomes have flatlined over the last thirty years when adjusted for inflation, the top earners have grown steadily. We’re tired of hearing our duly elected representatives defend the notion that it’s okay to take from those who have basically nothing to give and reward those who have so much. You want to cut welfare- get infrastructure jobs and other going so people won’t need it. You want to cut Medicare, get rid of the waste and make it more efficient. You want to cut government agencies, start with some cuts to the black hole of Homeland Security and curb defense spending for a while. Make government small, by all means. But don’t expect those whose lives depend on social security and medicare the ones who will ultimately suffer the consequences. It’s time for everyone, rich and poor alike, to contribute to the cause. Raising tax rates on the wealthy to rates from the Clinton years won’t break them. They made good profits then and their incomes rose. They’ll live and there’s at least a marginal chance the rest of us might improve a little bit too.
Tap Out
November 26th, 2012
4:29 pm
I was once a fiscal Conservative….but the shady ‘rich only’ GOP turned me into a Liberal. I like this path much better.
Welcome to the Occupation
November 26th, 2012
4:30 pm
The corporate elite are the true leeches.
Doggone/GA
November 26th, 2012
4:30 pm
“Could be that they all have multiple personality complexes. They’re correct if that personality has never been here before”
Yeah, well…in that case they need to get their many personalities together and get them to stop using the same posting “flavor”!
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:31 pm
Uh, yea you are. Its ok hosef. Limousine liberals can be leeches too.
josef
November 26th, 2012
4:32 pm
RF
I think you’re wrong. I think what Nero wants is for us to think is that he’s rich…
DOGGONE
Caught that another accountant one…yep…
RF
November 26th, 2012
4:33 pm
@Brosephus 4:26- LOVED that one. Basically the Fox response is “Facts? Where we’re going, we don’t need any….facts.”
josef
November 26th, 2012
4:34 pm
NERO
I’m not a limousine liberal. I’m a plantation liberal. Can we be leeches, too?
RF
November 26th, 2012
4:35 pm
josef: he sure uses the wacko logic of many of his kind in defending them….
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:36 pm
Says hosef who brags about his taxes. C’mon leech pony up more for the cause.
Jefferson
November 26th, 2012
4:37 pm
Somebody has got to pay for Sandy, lord knows the insurance companies will screw thousands with the term “flood” and forget that they are supposed to use the profits of years with little claims to pay for the years of many claims, instead they just raise premiums and stiff their customers.
josef
November 26th, 2012
4:40 pm
NERO
Duh…if you look back, you’ll see I WASN’T bragging about my taxes. All’s I said was I probably pay more than YOU…or was that too subtle…
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:41 pm
Of course you can josef. Same entitlement leech mentality. You’re still part of the club.
josef
November 26th, 2012
4:42 pm
RF
Now, now…leave my waterboy alone!
Lynnie Gal
November 26th, 2012
4:42 pm
Sure hope all you R’s who are calling other Americans “leeches” are independently wealthy and won’t be affected when or if you lose your job or health insurance and your houses never get hit by a tornado or flood We all know you R’s would turn down assistance in that case so you won’t have to call yourselves “leeches”.
On the subject of Saxby, he’s been super conservative and this latest bail from the merry party of funny farm inhabitants shows that at least he understands a little something.
Mark Anderson
November 26th, 2012
4:43 pm
I like all these comments, it will just give us Democrats the victory we need each election. Come on over Rinos.
Get Real
November 26th, 2012
4:43 pm
Gosh Jay, the tax increases being proposed are like throwing a brick in the Grand Canyon; your progressive “spend like drunken sailor” pals are the real issue. It ought to be interesting what really gets “inked” regarding truly meaningful spending reductions…
josef
November 26th, 2012
4:44 pm
NERO
Nyanh…I turned down the invitation to join that club…too many bourgeois parvenus…
Skitty Fritty
November 26th, 2012
4:44 pm
Jefferson:
What about the homeowners who chose not to purchase insurance?
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:44 pm
Braggards always protest that they don’t brag.
Joe Hussein Mama
November 26th, 2012
4:44 pm
Nero — “C’mon leech pony up more for the cause.”
Leeches do not “pony up.” That’s YOUR job, prole.
Brosephus™
November 26th, 2012
4:44 pm
Yeah, well…in that case they need to get their many personalities together and get them to stop using the same posting “flavor”!
“Just as the leopard never changes it’s spots, the blogger never changes their flavor. Maybe they should buy policies from Mutual of Omaha to cover all their personalities.”
–Thomas “Marlin Perkins” Jefferson
JamVet
November 26th, 2012
4:47 pm
…your progressive and my regressive “spend like drunken sailor” pals are the real issue.
Yep big pigs at the trough. Some have an R brand in their rumps and some a D. (All branding is done by Wall Street’s cowboys.)
But it matters not a whit…
They win, you lose, get real…
bman.
November 26th, 2012
4:48 pm
I believe they should raise taxes on those who earn 250,000+. Then add another level – Anyone who makes more than 1 million should be taxed at 50%. Then another level…Anyone who has a net worth of more than 10 billion be taxed at 75%. Dump assets to cover….
Anyone in the entertainment industry should be exempt. Have them pay 80%.
Jefferson
November 26th, 2012
4:48 pm
A homeowner with out insurance could be a homeowner without a home.
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:49 pm
Sequestration can’t come fast enough. Raise all taxes. Cut all spending. Spread the pain. Make the leeches feel it too.
Jefferson
November 26th, 2012
4:50 pm
What makes anyone think a republican is a reformed spender ? A foolish person may.
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:52 pm
What makes anyone think that a Democrat is anything but a leech? Same as it ever was.
josef
November 26th, 2012
4:56 pm
NERO
I have not yet begun to brag!
Au moins je ne suis pas un BRAGGART pédant, mais un BRAGGARD … uppité snob français, suis-je!
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:58 pm
Ok, a French leech..
Nero
November 26th, 2012
4:59 pm
At least you’re a braggard with good humor
Nunna Yobinnes
November 26th, 2012
5:02 pm
Jefferson – we should reward people that didn’t pay for flood insurance? If you don’t “buy” flood insurance, you don’t “have” flood insurance.
lmno
November 26th, 2012
5:03 pm
Sometimes, taxes do have to go up. Its not preferable, but its just a fact. I mean, you can only mathematically cut taxes to 0%. At some point, even grover Norquist would have to agree that a 0% tax rate would mean less revenue.
Take a look at the tax rates under Eisenhower, that known liberal.
lmno
November 26th, 2012
5:05 pm
They should also make a graduated capital gains tax. The first $100,000 in cap gains can stay at 15%, then the next $100,000 can be taxed at 18%, and then the next at 20%, then a 25% tax on all cap gains over $300,000.
Nunna Yobinnes
November 26th, 2012
5:08 pm
Let’s just do away with itemized deductions altogether. Everyone gets a standard deduction. Problem solved. Next.
josef
November 26th, 2012
5:14 pm
NERO…
Moi? Le snob à gauche
http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/78390849734202721_Lrg0Llb0_b.jpg
middle of the road
November 26th, 2012
5:15 pm
So what all do they want to cut? Cut All of social security? If you didn’t establish your own retirement plan, then you work until you are unable, then you die of starvation? Cut all of Medicare? Same argument but when you get sick in old age, if you can’t pay, they put you on the curb to die? Don’t say you will be covered by hospitals charging the insured more – that is just taxation in another form. Cut out money for roads and bridges? Cut out money for federal prisons? Certainly cut Medicaid – let the poor die if they can’t pay. Do away with all forms of welfare. Get rid of unemployment insurance. (do we keep paying farmers not to grow crops?) Don’t give any money to Israel. Do we default on our debt and not pay the interest?
Notice I haven’t talked about defense, because that is the one thing that seems to be sacrosanct. But you need taxes to support it. Do we do away with the department of homeland security? Do we quit having wars against Iraq (we never paid for the last one)?
We the people WANT government to supply certain things. Maybe we should have a popular referendum on each spending item individually and let the majority rule (no that would be too much DEMOCRACY). We have to balance what we want govenment to supply with how much we want to tax ourselves (yes, I said OURSELVES, not those other people).
I personally want Social Security – and I am willing to see my SS taxes go up to make it sustainable. I also want Medicare and my taxes should increase dramatically to make IT sustainable. The rest of the pot comes from general federal income tax and there should be cuts to spending and increases in revenue, both. Revenue should come from ALL people, rich and poor. We ALL have to make sacrifices to get a balanced budget.
josef
November 26th, 2012
5:17 pm
NERO
Et…je ne suis pas un LEECH…je suis une SANGSUE..
muddy waters
November 26th, 2012
5:18 pm
I love the smell of a wingnut circular firing squad in the morning!
Get Real
November 26th, 2012
5:20 pm
JamVet
You have real “woody” for Wall Street brokers don’t you….you can confiscate all the top 2% dollars and it won’t make a dent….you just don’t get it. I want to reduce the debt, you however just want some sort of twisted perceived payback….
Nunna Yobinnes
November 26th, 2012
5:23 pm
With respect to military spending cutbacks, what happens to all the unemployed service men and women? Where do they get jobs?
josef
November 26th, 2012
5:23 pm
GET REAL
Don’t let ZamVet fool ya, he’s already been invited to join the International Zionist Na zi Jew Bankers…
Get Real
November 26th, 2012
5:29 pm
josef….he does have a tendency to go off on a tangent…
josef
November 26th, 2012
5:32 pm
GET REAL
ZamVet has issues! (I like him, BTW…)
DawgDad
November 26th, 2012
6:29 pm
“So what all do they want to cut? . . . We the people WANT government to supply certain things.”
We WANT security, as in National Security, and we want as much stable growth in our economy as possible.
Get the Federal Government out of Health Care, Education, Agricultural/Industry subsidies, Energy (except as must be procured for National Security interests), Home Mortgages, Bailouts, Stimulus, pork projects (which should and could be left to the States). All the Federal grants to study nose-picking as an alternative art form aren’t very productive, either. Cut every other discretionary spend at least 10% and eliminate (outlaw) baseline budgeting. Prohibit Federal Employees from unionizing and void all existing contracts. Prohibit Executive waivers from provisions of existing law.
Nothing of any substance will change for the better until they repeal the income tax, which is a license for the politicians and masses to grab property from whoever has it.
M R Chasman
November 26th, 2012
6:31 pm
Saxby is a senile dufus. . I will never vote for him again
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (aka "Knuckle-Dragger")
November 26th, 2012
7:32 pm
Saxby is an empty suit, and the Tea Party will take care of him, just like Lugar. May cause some pain in the short term, but there is really nothing else to do. Isakson will need to go, also.
“Democrat lite” will not work. When you allow the idiot Democrats to spend like drunken sailors, and then say, “Oh well, I guess we have to pay for their lunacy,” you need to go. Do the math, Saxby; you can not get enough money to pay for this – we have to end the “bread and circuses” phase of the Republic, otherwise it will cease to exist.
RAMZAD
November 26th, 2012
7:38 pm
Contrary to what many Republicans believe the GOP is not capitulating to anything.
The GOP was given a Singaporean whipping on November 6th by the American people, and it can either go lick its wounds and come back humbled, chastened, contrite, and cooperative or it can go into extinction.
All this talk and this continued flirtation with brinksmanship is poorly advised.
The demographic for protecting the rich from paying more income taxes and for withholding healthcare from the poor, and for cutting student loans, and for keeping the military as a colossal dragon that needs weeks to get the message, and for hating on women, and for race baiting other Americans is dead. I repeat. That demographic is dead….dead…dead…got it? Dead.
HamiltonAZ
November 26th, 2012
8:36 pm
If he could get out the vote, Mayor Reed vs. Handel would be an interesting general election. The Governor, assuming he’s not in a battle himself, might not support Reed, but I doubt he would throw support to Handel, leaving business Republicans to go quietly to the voting booth.
yuzeyurbrane
November 26th, 2012
10:03 pm
I admit that I am a big fan of Krugman. I have been reading his columns pretty regularly for about the last 8 years and he has been correct in his analysis and predictions almost all of the time, even when he disagreed with Obama. That is why I am a big fan. I am also a skeptic and find it incredible that an economist can be so consistently accurate. For those who disagree with him, I challenge you to name 5 significant predictions he has been materially wrong about in the last 4 years.
Breakfast Links - Points and Figures | Points and Figures
November 28th, 2012
6:44 am
[...] The conservative backlash at ‘Taxby’ begins [...]
Lil Max
December 2nd, 2012
9:19 am
If the congress is really wanting to reduce entitlements they should first reduce their own! Congress has for themselves the very best retirement program of anyone in the country and it is not deserved. They have the best medical coverage and perks of all kinds. Why should a one term congressman be entitled to a pension? Congress should clean their own house before they go looking for cuts that will hurt all citizens.