Holding up a payroll tax holiday deal will hurt the economy starting in January. In the meantime, it’s hurting Republicans a lot. The two month compromise negotiated by Mitch McConnell in the Senate was pretty weak as it is. But John Boehner couldn’t stand down a mutiny in his own ranks. And after a lengthy House GOP caucus meeting tonight, House Republicans agreed to reject the compromise.
But recognizing how damaging the on-going payroll tax holiday debate has become for Republicans, House leaders Boehner and Cantor have come up with a convoluted procedure reminiscent of ‘deem-and-pass’ from 2010 to allow their caucus members to reject the deal while still being able to tell voters they didn’t reject the deal. Here’s the plan.
I emailed this to our 2012 team back in mid-July, and it holds up pretty well five months later:
Guys, I think I’ve mentioned before but I’m keenly interested in the impact of Ron Paul on the 2012 GOP race. Because he has virtually no shot of winning, he gets very little coverage and there is remarkably little analysis of his role in the race. But no shot of winning doesn’t mean he’s not a factor. And in a year in which all the GOP candidates are deeply flawed, weak or unknown (usually all three), someone with Paul’s loyal base of support, reasonably good name recognition and consistent record could end up being much more of a factor than people consider. Even in 2008, McCain folks had to work night and day to head off a Paulite revolt on the floor of convention. So let’s keep close eye on Paul and not overlook him.
Here’s the latest from Benjy Sarlin on why Ron Paul should not be ignored.
You thought Politifact couldn’t get lamer or more willfully resistant to actually understanding critical public policy questions. But you were wrong! Check this out. It’s for the ages.
Just a few moments ago, CNN released its latest public opinion survey with new approval numbers for President Obama. The numbers are 49% approval and 48% disapproval. That’s a significant notch up from where the president has been in recent months but it’s also almost identical to data released yesterday by ABC/WaPo, which had President Obama at 49% approval vs. 47% disapproval.
What’s more, there is additional information suggesting that the President’s jobs push and especially the stand-off over the payroll tax holiday are boosting President Obama at the expense of his Republican rivals — both on the Hill and in the upcoming presidential elections.
Let’s look at some trends. Read More
President Obama just made an unscheduled appearance in the White House briefing room to address the payroll tax deal defeat: “This is not poker, this is not a game for the millions of Americans who will take a hit because the economy grows more slowly.”
All the available information suggests that the current payroll tax debate is hurting Republicans badly and buoying the President. You can see it in the body language of Boehner, Cantor and the rest of the leadership. The fact that Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly for the compromise speaks volumes.
But the real tell is elsewhere. Read More
Benjy Sarlin sums up Romney’s latest defense of his Bain Capital days in today’s episode of 100 Seconds.
Gingrich’s sky-high Iowa poll numbers are plummeting back to earth. And if the past few weeks felt like a dream to the candidate, then he got a rather rude awakening today.
It’s not every day that congressional Republicans get taken to the proverbial woodshed in the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.
But the lead op-ed in today’s paper is pretty devastating, both for its relative clarity on the issue at hand for the GOP, and for its frank recognition of the potentially suicidal path that House GOP backbenchers have put the party on. Read More