Sen. Jim DeMint was joined this week by 32 Republican colleagues in the Senate, including several not usually seen making common cause with the South Carolinian, to warn GOP members of the congressional super committee against any tax increase.
And long-time conservative strategist and fund raiser Richard Viguerie is lauding DeMint and his fellow Senate letter-signers for making clear “the $600 billion tax hike Republicans floated last week is a nonstarter for conservatives.” His comments come in a piece published today on Conservative HQ.
Viguerie is referring to a letter signed earlier in the week by 40 House Republicans calling on the super committee to put everything on the table, including tax increases. He says the 40 epitomize the efforts “of insider Republicans to institutionalize the vast increase in spending that began when Democrats took over Congress in 2006 and has accelerated under President Obama.”
This potential split in Republican ranks just as the super committee approaches its Thanksgiving deadline for producing $1.5 trillion in spending reductions was lost in the hub-bub surrounding Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment of women years ago when he was president of the National Restaurant Association.
But the GOP divide on the tax hike issue is likely to be far more significant to the nation’s future than the Cain controversy. Viguerie believes elements of the GOP leadership are trying to ease the way for a super committee deal that includes tax hikes.
“Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner continued to muddy the waters on the Republican position on taxes by saying ‘there is room for revenue’ in a deal to reduce the deficit, but then tried to clarify that such revenue would not come from a tax increase on individuals or businesses, but from increases in fees, co-payments and one-time sources, such as sales of excess government property,” Viguerie said.
“Boehner has become increasingly involved in the super committee’s deliberations and, according to The Hill newspaper, has met for three consecutive days with Republican members of the panel. The GOP members last week made a $2.2 trillion offer that included, by their calculations, $640 billion in new revenue from fees, insurance changes, increased economic growth and a change in the way inflation is calculated for government programs that the DeMint letter took to task,” he said.
The problem at the heart of the tax issue is really spending, according to Viguerie, who argues that “Boehner and other insider Republicans … just can’t bring themselves to say ‘the government doesn’t need any more money’ and confront the Democrats over spending.”
For the rest of Viguerie’s piece, go here.
