DeMint Names Names in New Book
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 11th, 2011 4:39 am by HL
DeMint Names Names in New Book
A preview of Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) new book The Great American Awakening by McClatchy reveals that the fierce conservative “casts tough judgments on various politicians he describes as friends.”
“He suggests that former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, an Upstate neighbor and an early political ally, deserved his defeat in last year’s GOP primary — to now-Rep. Trey Gowdy — because he’d strayed from conservative tenets… Among other prominent Republicans he calls friends but skewers on ideological grounds are former Sens. Arlen Specter (now a Democrat) of Pennsylvania and Bob Bennett of Utah; Sens. Dan Coats of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas; and former Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware.”
Obama Continues Push for Big Deal on Debt
President Obama will hold an 11am ET press conference this morning to provide an update on the status of debt ceiling negotiations.
The Wall Street Journal reports President Obama is still pushing for “the largest possible package, some $4 trillion over 10 years. Republicans, however, made a pitch for a scaled-down plan of roughly $2 trillion over 10 years that doesn’t include about $1 trillion in tax increases the White House is seeking.”
The Washington Post says both sides appeared to “dig further into their positions, leaving the talks deadlocked.”
Mark Halperin: “As the president’s advisers have pointed out, the politics of getting a $2 trillion deal are just as tougher (and in some ways tougher) than the politics of getting a $4 trillion deal. But continuing to press for the bigger bargain (assuming the House Republicans are dug in) risks burning up valuable time. The White House rhetoric suggests it thinks the public would prefer a grander bargain, but it is hard to see public pressure or polls moving Boehner/Cantor/etal off of their current posture.”
Bachmann the Tax Collector
While Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) frequently touts her work as a “federal tax litigation attorney” on the campaign trail as a defining experience in her career, the Wall Street Journal notes another name for the position: “tax collector.”
“In stump speeches and interviews, Ms. Bachmann said her tax work helped lead her to the conclusion that the U.S. should “deep-six” the tax code… According to numerous tax lawyers, both in an out of government, IRS lawyers in Ms. Bachmann’s former job typically represent the government against delinquent taxpayers. The majority of these cases result in settlements.”