9-9-9

GOP Senators Dance, Dance, Dance Around 9-9-9

Brian Beutler | October 18, 2011, 3:41PM

Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain

As Herman Cain has climbed in the polls, lawmakers and other GOP presidential candidates have had to contend more seriously with his ideas. One of the main attacks his opponents have leveled against his 9-9-9 tax plan is that it won't fly in Congress.

True story. Today's GOP leaders aren't willing to embrace the plan, which would wipe out the current tax code and replace it with a nine percent tax on individual income, a nine percent tax on corporate income, and a nine percent sales tax.

As noted here, here, and here, the plan has a lot of problems. It's deeply regressive. As businesses passed on the cost of their share of the tax to consumers, it would hit low and middle income earners exceptionally hard at a time when the economy desperately needs more, not less, consumption. And part of it's probably unconstitutional, at least as Cain envisions it.

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John Thune

Thune Will Not Run For President

Brian Beutler | February 22, 2011, 12:11PM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

An early favorite bites the dust. "[A]t this time, I feel that I am best positioned to fight for America's future here in the trenches of the United States Senate," reads a statement from John Thune (R-SD) who was once thought to be considering a run for the presidency in 2012.

You can read his entire statement below the fold.

This will come as particularly disappointing news to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had encouraged him to run, and to New York Times columnist David Brooks, who shortly after President Obama was elected gushed "he is tall (6 feet 4 inches), tanned (in a prairie, sun-chapped sort of way) and handsome (John McCain jokes that if he had Thune's face he'd be president right now). If you wanted a Republican with the same general body type and athletic grace as Barack Obama, you'd pick Thune."

Thune was always going to have a tough time in the GOP primary field, particularly vis-a-vis his 2008 vote for TARP.

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Egypt

John Thune: I'm Glad Mubarak Left

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 11, 2011, 1:35PM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

TPM just caught up with Sen. John Thune ahead of his speech at CPAC, where he's another of the coy maybe 2012ers to take the stage. I asked him if Mubarak's exit in Egypt said anything about how Obama handled the crisis.

Thune declined to talk about Obama, but said he's glad Mubarak is leaving and the military's taking over.

"I think it's right he stepped down," Thune told TPM. He praised the military as "one of the most reliable intstitutions in the country."

John Thune

Thune Rejects Obama's Call For Infrastructure Investment

Brian Beutler | January 26, 2011, 11:00AM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

In a brief interview Wednesday, just above the Senate chamber, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) rejected President Obama's State of the Union call for broad infrastructure upgrades, citing his opposition to new spending projects and claiming that existing mechanisms for funding current transportation infrastructure projects are basically adequate.

"I understand the goal, but right now this is going to be -- anytime you talk about 'investment' it means new spending," Thune told me. "When you talk about new spending at a time when we've got this financial picture, I don't know how he's going to accomplish all the things that he wants to get done, and then still talk about a five-year freeze on discretionary spending. You can't do it all."

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Republican Study Committee

Controversial Conservative Spending Cut Plan Divides Republicans

Brian Beutler | January 26, 2011, 10:05AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Down to its smallest details, the Republican Study Committee's spending cut proposal exposes real rifts in the Republican party. While the GOP's basically fine with slashing arts funding, a lot of the items in that budget -- meant to imply liberal profligacy -- actually have significant Republican support.

For instance, the RSC plan would slash $150 million in spending on Essential Air Service -- a government program, which ensures small and rural communities continue to receive commercial airline service.

Flash back to 2007, and possible Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) spearheaded an effort to restore such service to his constituents. "I am encouraged by the Senate's action to move this important legislation. Essential Air Service is just that, essential. It is essential to the people it serves and it is essential that the House of Representatives pass this legislation without modification so that we can restore commercial air service for Brookings," said Thune. "Ensuring access to communities like Brookings strengthens the local economy, provides consumers with choices, and makes the entire commercial airline network more valuable."

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Health Care

How The Health Care Repeal Push Marks The End Of The Universal Health Care Consensus

Brian Beutler | January 18, 2011, 8:51AM

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Here's one case for the individual mandate in the health care law boiled down to two sentences -- both fairly elegant considering they were spoken extemporaneously.

"There isn't anything wrong with it, except some people look at it as an infringement upon individual freedom. But when it comes to states requiring it for automobile insurance, the principle then ought to lie the same way for health insurance, because everybody has some health insurance costs, and if you aren't insured, there's no free lunch. Somebody else is paying for it." -- June 14, 2009

A corollary to that argument is that you can't have a functioning private health care system that treats the sick unless it also draws money from the healthy. In this regard, the individual mandate actually marries two distinctly American priorities -- an obsession with private markets, and the core belief that nobody should go without health care.

Considering just how cacophonous the health care debate has become, it might surprise you to learn that the mystery reformer quoted above is Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the Republicans' health care point man in the Senate who, during the same interview, with great authority, claimed "I believe that there is a bipartisan consensus to have individual mandates."

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CPAC

Thune To Appear At CPAC

Eric Kleefeld | January 13, 2011, 12:24PM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

At least one potential Republican presidential candidate is not joining the right-wing boycott of CPAC over its inclusion of a gay conservative group: Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who will be headed there to speak.

Several prominent social conservative groups are boycotting CPAC, due to the participation of GOProud, with others having pulled out because of financial disputes with the conference's parent group, the American Conservative Union.

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2012 elections

Thune To Visit GOP In Pawlenty's Home State Of Minnesota

Eric Kleefeld | December 27, 2010, 12:48PM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN)

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), one of the many Republican politicians viewed as being a potential presidential candidate, is now set to make a trip to the stomping ground of another possible contender: Gov. Tim Pawlenty's home state of Minnesota.

As the Star Tribune reports, Thune will be headlining the Minnesota GOP's Lincoln Reagan dinner, this coming February 25.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Blame The Lame Duck: Republicans Find A New Reason For 'No' Votes

Jillian Rayfield | December 23, 2010, 8:37AM

This year's lame duck Congress has been described as the most productive since World War II, with the passage of a tax cuts deal, a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, ratification of the new START treaty, and the passage of a bill to provide health care to 9/11 first responders.

But despite the Democrats' legislative victories, and even some bipartisan support, many top Republicans this week have been offering up the lame duck session itself as the latest sacrifice on the "Party of No" altar...

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2012 elections

Poll: Obama Handily Leads Palin, Romney, Thune

Jon Terbush | December 16, 2010, 4:51PM

Senator John Thune (R-ND), former governor Sarah Palin (R), and former governor Mitt Romney (R)

President Obama easily leads three Republican challengers in hypothetical 2012 matchups presented in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. However, Obama's victory against a generic GOP candidate falls within the poll's margin of error.

Only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney polled reasonably close to Obama in the head-to-head contests. Forty percent of respondents said they would vote for Romney if he were the Republican nominee, versus 47% who said they would vote for Obama.

Against Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Obama leads 47% to 27%, though 17% said they were undecided, a reflection of Thune's low national profile. In the same poll, 76% of respondents did not know Thune well enough to form an opinion of him.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fared worst of the three candidates tested. In that matchup, 33% percent of respondents said they would vote for Palin, while 55% said they would vote for Obama.

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Earmarks

Attention GOP Porkers: Hatch Had His Earmark Requests Stripped From Spending Bill

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 3:45PM

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Republican Senators whose earmark requests pepper the much-maligned omnibus spending bill are having a really hard time explaining how they went from requesting earmarks earlier this year to decrying the legislation... because of all the earmarks. But never let it be said that those requests were baked into the spending package before the anti-pork wave hit in November.

After the Republican caucus voted to impose an earmark moratorium last month, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) -- who's likely to face a primary challenge from the right in 2012 -- asked Senate appropriators to strip his earmarks from the omnibus.

"I did," Hatch confirmed to me this afternoon after a Senate vote, "because I decided I voted for the moratorium, and I thought 'well, I need to do that.'"

He's having an easier day than a lot of Republican senators who are having to answer charges of hypocrisy.

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Appropriations

Republicans Make Good On Threat To Force Lame Duck Spending Showdown

Brian Beutler | December 15, 2010, 11:25AM

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Before the midterms, conservative leaders were warning that they'd force a showdown over federal spending much earlier than expected: in the lame duck session, before the newly elected Republicans come to Washington.

They weren't joking. Republican and Democratic leaders are now engaged in a brinksmanship that could result in a temporary shutdown of the federal government. After the election, Republicans voted among themselves to eschew all earmarks for two years, and now they have to make good on their pledge. Yesterday, Democrats' chief appropriator, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) unveiled what's known as an omnibus spending bill -- a bundled up package of appropriations legislation, earmarks, and other measures -- which would keep the government running for a year.

In response, most Republicans -- even those whose multimillion dollar earmark requests are included in the legislation -- are saying, "Hell no you can't!"

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2012 elections

Early Look At 2012 Republican Presidential Primary Shows Tight Four-Way Race

Marc Kilstein | November 16, 2010, 3:53PM

Fmr. Governors Mitt Romney (R-MA), Mike Huckabee (R-AR), and Sarah Palin (R-AK), and Fmr. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Four Republicans have emerged as the clear early (err, very early) frontrunners in the 2012 Republican presidential primary, according to a recently concluded series of Public Policy Polling (D) surveys. The favorite of the bunch? Not so clear.

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Olympia Snowe

Republicans Defend Continued Tax Breaks For Millionaires (VIDEO)

Brian Beutler | November 16, 2010, 1:25PM

Republicans from across the conservative spectrum are swatting down a proposal from Democrat Chuck Schumer to resolve the tax cut dispute by ending tax cuts to millionaires only.

"The answer is no," said Sen. John Thune (R-SC) -- the fourth ranking Republican in the Senate -- on Fox News last night. "What you want to do if you believe the best ways to grow jobs and to grow the economy in this country is to keep taxes low and to allow small businesses...to get out and do that, then the worst thing you can do is raise taxes on them, which, if you raise them on those higher-income levels is what happens.

Thune is a contender for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, and his position is reflective of the fact that he'll be guarding his right flank for the next many months.

Moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), however, agrees with Thune.

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Sarah Palin

2012 Starts Now: Polls Show Palin, Romney And Huckabee Popular Primary Choices

Eric Kleefeld | November 12, 2010, 6:05PM

Former Governors Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Sarah Palin (R-AK)

So who has the (very early) lead in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries? A big set of polls from key states released this week by Public Policy Polling (D) -- conducted as part of their surveys of various states in the days leading up the recent midterm election -- shows Mitt Romney with narrow leads in most states, followed closely by Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

Romney leads in New Hampshire, California, Colorado, Connecticut and Florida. Meanwhile, Palin leads in Maine, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Mike Huckabee posts narrow leads in Illinois and Pennsylvania

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John Thune

Math Is Hard: John Thune's Plan To Eliminate Deficits In 10 Many, Many Years

Brian Beutler | July 28, 2010, 3:15PM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) -- the fifth highest ranking Republican in the Senate -- has a new plan for lowering deficits, and as you might expect from GOP leadership, it involves zero tax hikes. It does however, involve math and, if his appearance on Fox News last night is any indication, Thune finds math rather difficult. There's really no other way to explain his utter failure to remember the law of diminishing returns when he talked about the benefits of his deficit reduction plan.

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2012 elections

John Thune Talks 2010 With Republicans And 2012 With Reporters

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 11, 2010, 9:32PM

Sen. John Thune (R-SD)

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) told Republican state party chairs gathered at their annual convention in Maryland tonight that it was time for Republicans to "get in the arena" and start working to win elections. But when it came to his own rumored presidential ambitions, Thune was less eager to discuss the field of play.

"That was not a personal reference," Thune told reporters after the speech. He said he's not thinking about running for president yet and is still focused on 2010.

Thune offered the state party chairs a pretty standard Republican-base rallying speech, all Reagan and "getting back to core Republican values." But when it came to 2010 -- which Thune called a "crossroads election," -- Thune told the crowd that it was time for Republicans at all levels to get up and get involved, lest they squander the opportunity to make big gains by not showing up.

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Financial Reform

Why The GOP Suddenly Let Up On Financial Reform

Brian Beutler and Christina Bellantoni | April 21, 2010, 3:18PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)

Within 48 hours, the Republican line on financial regulatory reform went from "filibuster" to "we're very close to a deal." Why the shift? Republicans and Democrats will offer up spin all day, chalking up the progress to their own doggedness, but in the end it comes down to a simple reality. Key Republicans, sincere about passing new rules for Wall Street, but intimidated by the notion of blocking financial regulatory reform, let it be known to their leadership that, at some point, they would side with Democrats to break a filibuster. Maybe not on round one, or even round two. But eventually.

"Folks on our side of the aisle want a bill," Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) told TPMDC and a few other reporters Monday night. "I know that. I just [had a] discussion with some of our leadership on the floor. You know, we want a bill."

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Health Care

Divide And Conquer: The GOP's PsyOps Strategy To Scare Shaky House Dems Off Health Care Reform

Brian Beutler | March 12, 2010, 12:51PM

Senate Republicans are running out of options. As Democrats inch closer to passing health care reform, the GOPers in the upper chamber have realized they can't rely on the procedural tricks they have at their disposal in the Senate to stall or derail the process because all of the action is in the House.

So their latest plan to derail the reform legislation is more devious: Senate Republicans have embarked on a rhetorical scorched-Earth strategy about the political perils of passing health care, to sow the seeds of doubts in the minds of House Democrats in the hopes that they lose their nerve and sink the bill.

Call it Congressional psy-ops.

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Health Care

Reid Spokesman: Republican Fake Outrage 'Hard To Believe'

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2009, 3:50PM

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office is criticizing the GOP's "feigned outrage" in response to comments he made on the Senate floor this morning. In his speech, Reid whacked Republicans for attempting to kill health care reform, comparing their obstructive tactics to those used to prolong slavery and stall women's suffrage and civil rights.

Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is this:, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, 'Slow down, it's too early, let's wait, things aren't bad enough.'

When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn't quite right.

When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats we hear today.

Republicans lashed out.

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Al Franken

Senate GOPers: It's Al Franken's Fault We're Being Attacked For Votes Against Anti-Rape Amendment

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2009, 5:36PM

Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Al Franken (D-MN).

The Politico reports that Senate Republicans are outraged at Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) due to their votes against an amendment he introduced, to crack down on the rape of employees of military contractors, now being used against them:

The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers -- and because Franken isn't doing much to stop them.

"Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape --and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don't think it's a very constructive thing," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.

...

"I don't know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won't see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him," said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate Republican leadership. "I think hopefully he'll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that's important to Minnesota."

No, this is not The Onion.

Sunday Shows

The Sunday Show Line-Ups

Eric Kleefeld | October 16, 2009, 3:23PM

Rahm Emanuel

Here are the line-ups for the Sunday talk shows this weekend:

• ABC, This Week: White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod.

• CBS, Face The Nation: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH).

• CNN, State Of The Union: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).

• Fox News Sunday: Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), Sen. John Thune (R-SD), former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove, former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe.

• NBC, Meet The Press: White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), California First Lady Maria Shriver, Center for American Progress president John Podesta.