Are Republicans Backing Down From “No Tax Increase” Pledge?

Are Republicans Backing Down From “No Tax Increase” Pledge?



By Guest Blogger Richard Falknor

Taxing & Spending:What Do House GOP Leaders Stand For?

                                
“We fear it is reelection and political advancement above all.
When we were reading a Melanie Phillips post from last Monday describing a leading politician on the right –

“For in his slavish devotion to politics by focus group, he has constantly shown that he is all about strategy and process rather than principle and substance.”

We thought she could also be talking about one of the figures in the House GOP leadership. But of course she meant United Kingdom prime minister David Cameron.

The problem, however, is the same in both historic chambers – - well-spoken but “content-lite” leaders of conservative political parties in the Anglophone world who simply aren’t up to coping with today’s grave challenges to a free society.

Remember Virginia Representative Eric Cantor’s 2009 “Listening Tour” before the Tea Party and the conservative base allowed Mr. Cantor to become House majority leader in January 2011? Click here and scroll down.  He apparently wasn’t sure about some of his core convictions in 2009.

Finally we have learned what some of Mr. Cantor’s convictions are not.

Today via the Republican Study Committee 72 House Republicans Urge “Super Committee” Not to Back Higher Taxes – -

“Washington, Nov 17 – 72 House Republicans, led by Congressman Patrick McHenry, sent a letter to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction today urging them not to raise taxes.

‘Tax increases aren’t going to get our economy back on the right track,’ Congressman McHenry stated.  ‘We need real solutions to address runaway spending.  Raising taxes will only further damage the economy, discourage private sector investment, and hurt Americans struggling to make ends meet.’

Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan added, ‘Cutting back the national debt will require stronger private sector job growth and less government spending.  Raising taxes would just take us further away from both goals.’

Click here for the entire text of the letter.

Click here for the list of the letter’s co-signers.

Both Maryland Republican House members are co-signers. There is not a single Virginia Republican co-signer.

We invite the attention of the Virginia GOP delegation to James Pethokoukis’ post yesterday (Enterprise Blog) “5 reasons why the GOP would be nuts to raise taxes” –

“We need to revamp the tax code to boost growth, not tinker with it to squeeze out a few more tax dollars from an ever shrinking group.

A host of studies from both liberal and conservative economists have found that eliminating the tax code’s bias against investment would boost long-term GDP growth by as much as 10 percent and add perhaps a full percentage point to annual GDP growth for a number of years. If Uncle Sam needs more revenue, faster economic growth is the best way of getting it.” (Underscoring Forum’s.)

Virginia Tea Partiers should be encouraging their House delegation to read the entire Pethokoukis post.”


Dell’s Note:   I think it goes without saying; this post and it’s recommendations applies to every Republican in Congress!