« Americans for Tax Reform
February 22, 2008
McCain Has Far-Right on Speed Dial
It’s all over but the shouting in the Republican primary, and more and more right-wing figures are falling in line behind the presumptive nominee. Still, there are some hold-outs, unwilling to reject McCain (as James Dobson has) but hoping to squeeze the last few drops of their leverage into yet more concessions.
It seems to be working. Rather than looking towards building a broader coalition for the general election, McCain still seems to be concentrating on the last few corners of the Right. Grover Norquist, who just weeks ago was lambasting McCain for not signing his tax pledge, now gets to hear McCain mouth the promise again and again. And Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council must have been pleased to have been one of the first people McCain called when the senator was trying to manage the New York Times lobbyist story:
"It's early in the process and he's made inroads with social conservatives," said Perkins, who got a call from McCain shortly after his morning press conference. "He's been very aggressive about handling this and he assured me this is not true." McCain's campaign is pointedly attacking the Times, which last month endorsed the senator. And that always plays well in the conservative community, Perkins says.
"When I speak to social conservatives around the country I tell them I read my Bible daily to see what God has to say about matters of importance," Perkins says, "and then I read the New York Times to see what the other side has to say."
Posted by Ezra at 6:17 PM | Permalink
August 9, 2007
Americans for Tax Reform Rates Candidates
Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Paul, Romney, Tancredo have signed "pledge."
Posted by Ezra at 11:35 AM | Permalink
August 8, 2007
Right-Wing Coalition United against SCHIP (Mostly)
While the conservative movement coalition of the economic right and social right has shown some small cracks in the last year, one bill in Congress has them singing the same tune: a proposal to expand the coverage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The Religious Right is complaining that the bill defines “children” beginning with birth, rather than conception. According to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, making “unborn children” ineligible to sign up for insurance “is a calculated move to open the door to federal taxpayer-funded abortions.” (FRC’s David Christiansen clarified: “The federal dollars wouldn't necessarily be used to do the abortion, but it's freeing up states to perform these other services, including abortion, with their own state money.”)
Meanwhile, National Right to Life Committee asserted that the bill would lead to Medicare “rationing” and thus “involuntary euthanasia.” “They have attacked the sanctity of life both at the beginning and the latter stages of life,” cried Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, speaking of “the Democratic leadership” in Congress.
In addition, the Religious Right warns that the bill renews funding for abstinence education, but doesn’t restrict it to abstinence-only programs. “They’re simply giving states more money to fund Planned Parenthood and the programs that teach our children to have sex,” complained Linda Klepacki of Focus on the Family. “Comprehensive sex education will once again have a monopoly on your school systems.”
Meanwhile, economic-right activists are warning that expanding SCHIP is “a step towards socialism.” In this, they find welcome support from Perkins, who – despite his warnings about abortion – wrote that the “[m]ost important” aspect of the bill is that “its expansion represents a direct attack on private insurance, pushing Americans closer to what many Democratic leaders have long advocated--government-run, taxpayer-funded, universal health care, managed with the same efficiency and customer care as your local DMV.”
Both the Heritage Foundation and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform have trashed the bill. But as Robert Novak reports, they are having some trouble on the details, arguing with each other over right-wing amendments offered by Republicans.
The 42 senators and 196 House members who have signed a no-tax-increase pledge received a stern warning Wednesday from Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform: If you vote for Amendment 2548 to the Democratic-sponsored expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), you will violate your solemn promise. However, Amendment 2548 is not the product of tax-and-spend liberals but of conservative lawmakers and policy experts.
Sen. Richard Burr, a first-term conservative Republican from North Carolina and principal sponsor of 2548, pulled it off the floor Thursday night as SCHIP expansion passed the Senate, 68 to 31. The conservative movement is split over Norquist's warning, with two right-wing think tanks at each other's throats. Sponsors of the Burr amendment are furious that they are being depicted as tax-increasers when they claim they are fighting a movement toward "socialized medicine" in America.
This disarray on the right is part of a broader conservative breakdown. SCHIP passage, with notable Republican support, means that the Democrats -- 12 years after the failure of "Hillary care" -- have figured out how to market a government-financed plan. The quarrel over the Burr amendment reflects not only a failed Republican reaction to big government but also a weakening of GOP resolve to hold down taxes.
Posted by Ezra at 10:15 AM | Permalink
July 19, 2007
Well, How Big Is Your Bathtub?
The National Tax Limitation Committee and the National Center for Policy are hosting an awkwardly worded “The ‘Optimal (Right) Size of Government’ Conference” (PDF) tomorrow that will bring together “more than 20 of the leading free-market experts will convene in Washington to discuss whether there is and can be an objective standard to determine the proper size and role of government.”
Among the participants is Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform – and it is not hard to figure out what his view of the proper size of the government will be:
“My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Posted by Kyle at 6:45 PM | Permalink
July 16, 2007
Right-Wing Conference Planned as 'Left Coast' CPAC
Citizen Outreach and Americans for Tax Reform plan Conservative Leadership Conference for October in Nevada. Gingrich, Thompson, Tancredo, Giuliani, McCain, Romney invited.
Posted by Ezra at 11:30 AM | Permalink
March 30, 2007
2008: GOP Candidates Race to Right on Economic Issues, Too
To “offset” social positions (temp link). E.g.: Steve Forbes endorses Giuliani.
Posted by Ezra at 6:02 PM | Permalink
March 2, 2007
CPAC: Presidential Candidates Descend upon Fabled Base
Much has been written of the unseasonably early 2008 presidential campaign, but one unanticipated side effect is that the Conservative Political Action Conference agenda is larded with ambitious politicians hoping to surprise – or at least appease – what all of them have apparently decided is their best hope, the far-right base. No less than eight Republican contenders (if you count Newt Gingrich, who appears to be looking for the side entrance to the White House) are scheduled; the only major candidate missing is John McCain.
And so the activist crowd, compared to last year’s conference, is more enthused with people than with causes. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a relatively unknown candidate, managed to fill a good portion of the large hall first thing in the morning. By 10 this morning, Mike Huckabee had people standing in the back, and at noon, CPAC staff closed off the wing as Rudy Giuliani had filled it up. At that point, a line began forming for those who wanted to see Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and Mitt Romney, and by the time Giuliani finished his hour-long speech, the hundreds in line stretched back to the exhibit hall in the next wing. Of course, that may not have reflected any popularity on the part of the candidates themselves so much as the crowd wanting to get their money’s worth at the three-day event.
Hunter, who struck a martial theme, received a mixed response for his ideas on trade, but garnered standing ovations for his tough talk on building a fence to halt immigration over the Mexican border, and for his promise that “As president of the United States, I will pardon” the two border agents convicted in a shooting incident. Another plank of his platform that drew approval was his policy on picking judges: “If any judicial candidate comes before me and can look at a sonogram … and not see valuable life, then I will not appoint him.” While most polls hardly register Hunter's candidacy, a straw poll in South Carolina found him a close second to Giuliani, a result that could give some life to his campaign.
Following an interlude on global warming – in which Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) repeated his now standard tirade involving the UN, Richard Cizik, and animal worship – former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee came in, armed to the teeth with folksy charm, and took aim at competitors who he said were changing their positions with the “prevailing winds”: “Some folks here had so many road-to-Damascus experiences they’ve had more than a Syrian camel driver,” he cracked. He reiterated his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, repeating his crack about “Moses coming down” from “Brokeback Mountain,” and accusing opponents of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage of preferring to amend the Bible, which he called “the very text upon which that Constitution was based.” Huckabee’s surprise move was to counter fervent opposition from the Club for Growth by announcing that “I plan later today to deliver to Grover Norquist a signed pledge” against taxes.
Giuliani, speaking at noon, eschewed all talk of the social issues that alienate much of this crowd, preferring instead to play to his perceived strengths. He briefly mentioned taxes, crime, welfare, and education (speaking in favor of school vouchers), but the bulk of his hour-long address was on terrorism and the war in Iraq, evoking his role as mayor of New York on September 11, 2001. Announcing himself as part of the “Reagan revolution” in that, like Reagan, he was interested in being “a leader,” Giuliani promised he would be making a lot of “tough decisions.” That meant, he claimed, that he differed from Democrats, who he said wanted to “go on defense” in the war on terror by opposing “the Patriot Act and electronic surveillance and interrogation,” the things he said helped him bring down the Gambino crime family as a prosecutor. Mostly, though, he compared the “tough decisions” he would make as president to Reagan during the Cold War. “A little heavy on the Reagan,” muttered one audience member.
Posted by Ezra at 4:10 PM | Permalink
February 7, 2007
Norquist: Libertarians and Religious Right Should Stick Together
What he calls “Leave Us Alone coalition.” ISI’s McCarthy questions this “fusionism,” while ACU defends it.
Posted by Ezra at 11:59 PM | Permalink
February 1, 2007
2008: Scarborough Dubious of Romney 'Conversion'
On abortion, stem cells. Meanwhile: Long-shot Hunter signs Norquist’s no-tax pledge.
Posted by Ezra at 5:58 PM | Permalink
January 19, 2007
Economic Right: 'Nothing Will Happen' on Social Security Issue
Groups had pushed privatization.
Posted by Ezra at 11:59 PM | Permalink
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