FreedomTalks

The Politico reports:

 Fiscally conservative Republicans in the House and Senate are complaining bitterly that GOP leaders are shutting them out of the bipartisan effort to quickly pass an economic stimulus package.

Gee, there’s a surprise.   Pardon my Clintonism, but I feel their pain.

These conservatives, many of whom helped frame the Republican fiscal message over the past several years, are accusing President Bush and their own congressional leaders of sacrificing long-held principles for short-term political gain by embracing a one-time tax rebate, some social welfare spending and some modest business tax incentives.

The biggest gripe from the right: The push for permanent tax cuts is being sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Conservative leaders complain that putting gas and grocery money in the hands of taxpayers — especially in an election year — is much easier than debating President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts or a reduction in the corporate tax rate.

There’s the rub.   There’s not a huge amount to say about this except that, yes, fiscal conservatives are being ignored in favor of easy political pandering on both the right and the left. Bush, it seems, is going to more or less give Congress a pass on how it allocates the $140 billion he’s provided them.  Leadership on both sides of the aisle have instructed their members to ignore problems with proposals coming from the other side.

As the RSC release I quoted last week shows, there are good legislators on this and not all of the ideas suggested are bad news, but, in the main, this is a case of a bipartisan desire to give essentially unhelpful handouts to the public rather than enact policy changes that are actually geared toward seriously energizing the economy in the long term.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Budget, Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.