Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is one of the rising stars in the GOP, constantly prodding Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) from the right while feeling the love from conservative think tanks and bloggers.
And DeMint gave some love back today at the Heritage Foundation, delivering a speech that encapsulates the emerging Republican strategy for dealing with the popular president. He plays nice early on …
I like President Obama very much. We were elected to the Senate at the same time and we’ve worked together on a number of common goals. I believe he wants to do what is best for our country …
… and then he gets nasty.
The stimulus bill that is being championed by President Obama, which was passed by Democrats in the House last night, is the worst piece of economic legislation Congress has considered in a hundred years. Not since the passage in 1909 of the 16th Amendment – which cleared the way for a federal income tax – has the United States seriously entertained a policy so comprehensively hostile to economic freedom, nor so arrogantly indifferent to economic reality. …
This bill is not a stimulus, ladies and gentlemen; it is a mugging. It is a fraud.
DeMint’s preferred solution? You guessed it, folks: make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Why add to the deficit to create jobs when you can add to the deficit to mostly benefit the rich?
