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GOP Rep. McHenry Complains: "All We Can Talk About Is Tax Cuts"
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), a vocal conservative who serves as a deputy Republican whip, appears to have just admitted openly that the GOP's policies are irrelevant.
In the new Time article on the current sorry state of the party, McHenry decried the endless rhetoric about tax cuts -- and apparently declared that the era of Reagan is over:
The most urgent question is the meaning of economic conservatism. Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a conservative who keeps a bust of Reagan on his desk, surprised me by declaring that the Reagan era is over. "Marginal tax rates are the lowest they've been in generations, and all we can talk about is tax cuts," he said. "The people's desires have changed, but we're still stuck in our old issue set."
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Josh
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Eric
Brian
Dissing Reagan AND tax cuts? Forced apology in 3,2,1...
May 7, 2009 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Man bites dog! GOPosaurus talks sense!
May 7, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Good God...they're....LEARNING!"
May 7, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
...but still not listening!, please note.
May 7, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fear the dittohead wrath!
May 7, 2009 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans have lately been protesting as if taxes are historically high when they're actually historically low. I'm surprised an elected Republican actually made the mistake of admitting this fact. I predict he'll "correct" that mistake in short order.
May 7, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Marginal tax rates are the lowest they've been in generations, and all we can talk about is tax cuts," he said.
I feel like I just woke up in Oz. A Republican said this????!@!#?!??
Start the apology clock!
May 7, 2009 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ditto. Although the implicit endorsement of the absurd idea that the sun is gigantic ball of mostly hydrogen producing energy as a result of nuclear fusion will be upsetting to most Republicans. That's only a theory, after all.
May 7, 2009 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Notice what state McHenry's from: It behooves him to act reasonably when the state that you are representing is shifting from red-to-purple-to....
May 7, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Though impoverished by devastating losses in textiles, furniture, trucking, agriculture, etc., his district is still bright red. His constituents think taxes are responsible for all of society's ills and for their ignorance. This won't help him one bit there.
May 7, 2009 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the clarification. I was just looking at the state, not the actual situation that McHenry's in.
May 7, 2009 7:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
When he's up for re-election, his campaign slogan can be "Republican, But Not Dumb as a Rock".
May 7, 2009 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the jabbering about 'tax cuts' misses the fact that BushCheney appear to have gutted the SEC and other regulatory mechanisms, appointed corporatist judges (so the GOP can shove their 'innovation' claims up their toadying arses), and basically turned a blind eye to corruption so brazen and blatant that it ought to shock even the Ferenghis on Star Trek.
GOP = hypocrisy.
Anyone still dumb enough to claim that 'markets' have good information, or that unregulated markets are anything other than sewers, deserves to be ignored, ridiculed, and should not be trusted with anything sharper than a baby's spoon.
May 7, 2009 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
"unregulated markets are anything other than sewers"
Excellent metaphor.
May 7, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I liked the "until beer turns into solar flares' turn of phrase, myself.
May 7, 2009 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
"and should not be trusted with anything sharper than a baby's spoon."
Heh-heh.
May 7, 2009 9:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
DingDingDing! If the GOP is to have any hope of becoming relevant again they need to kick Boner to the curb and replace him with this guy. I won't hold my breath though.
*note, I'm only going by this one statement. a quick google check of him may change my mind. But really, it's not worth my time.
May 7, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
take away tax cuts and what is left?
May 7, 2009 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Joe the Plumber and gay marriage.
May 7, 2009 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
tax cuts are their raison d'etre. the rest is how they get the power to maintain their wealth...and cutting taxes is an essential component. I cannot even conceive of the Republicans without tax cuts. Take any problem, any issue: global warming, Katrina, Afghanistan, social security, improving schools, strengthening the family, health care and the answer is preserving the wealth of the wealthy, or increasing the wealth of the wealthy, and... tax cuts.
May 7, 2009 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
It struck me recently that Reagan was first elected 30 years ago, and that the young people that the GOP "just can't connect with" don't have any personal memory of Reagan or his era.
I know this is an obvious insight, but the implications hadn't really hit me fully. The GOP can't stop talking about their leadership from 30 years ago.
Not only that, but they're horrible at explaining exactly what Reagan's legacy is. It's just a touchstone for every issue of the right. "We need to get back to the Reagan era." Why? What specifically are you talking about?
May 7, 2009 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh? Who's Reagan?
So the question is, what percentage of active voters have a working memory of Reagan? Bush 1? Bush 2 may be all they know. Hmmm, and Republican recruiting is flagging? Really?
May 7, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
McHenry is a despicable gooper. Longtime member of the Larry Craig dance academy(with wild scandals to boot), he is brutally anti-gay. I don't mind ideologues, just supremely hypocritical ones.
May 7, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. Let's not forget the kinds of hate-filled spew he made his career in when the Congress was Repuke-majority.
And @ JohnW1141, you are correct, he's looking terrible these days. Obviously, living a lie makes you really gain weight, which makes you less likely to find a partner in life, which makes you more likely to find yourself in a McHenry/Craig/Foley kind of scandal.
May 7, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally agree...he's my "representative" and unfortunately his district is still very red. He's probably got a job as long as he stays in the closet. Honestly, he'd get more grief for being caught in bed with a black woman than a white man.
Just a nasty, creepy little troll...
May 7, 2009 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the rational-sounding talk did make me wonder whether this was some kind of imposter hoax thing.
May 7, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
McHenry looks like The Pillsbury Doughboy.
May 7, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
This reminds me of one of those Outer Limits movies, where the monsters get tired of eating people and start to eat each other.
REPUBLICANS - COMMON SENSE - SPOOKY!
May 7, 2009 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
McHenry is the worst of the idealogues. He must have temporarily lost his senses. This won't last.
May 7, 2009 6:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK... The Limbaugh clock is now on for this guy. How long do you think it will take for this congressman to change his story after Rush goes after him for challenging the conservative dogma? I am going with 6 days or less...
May 7, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to be a chickenlittle here, but if more Republicans come to grips with the changing times, the Democrats could be in for a fight by 2012.
Democrats have a way of mucking things up, and a more enlightend Republican party could take advantage of that.
May 7, 2009 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry. The GOP purity trolls will be feasting on his greasy flesh before Monday.
May 7, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is good for Limbaugh. He won't have to lift his foot very high to stomp this little twit. Of course he may volunteer to bend over and grab his ankles after disrobing and greasing up! Apparently Limbaugh is obsessed with this maneuver. I hope there is sand in the vaseline!
May 7, 2009 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rep. McHenry is a dildo hidden in Rush Limbaugh's panty drawer.
May 7, 2009 6:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
With my Republican friends, I compare tax cut proponents to that little kid in 3rd grade that nobody likes; in an effort to curry favor, he brings cupcakes to school. Everybody likes cupcakes! But they eat the cupcakes and still won't play with him!
Nobody likes paying taxes; but we sure like it when the cops come when called, the roads don't have potholes that swallow your car, or more recently, has millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to prevent a pandemic (take that, Governor of Texas).
"Tax man, Tax man, don't tax ME!
Tax that fellow over behind that tree!"
May 7, 2009 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Every day the GOP breaks down a little more as they abandon one "bedrock" principle after another. All they have left is the bile of Limbaugh and Gingrich.
May 7, 2009 7:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who woke him up?...give the other hundred and something of them left the same thing...
May 7, 2009 7:32 PM | Reply | Permalink