John Boehner

I have argued for a while that Repubicans need to pick up the mantle of transparency. It is useful tactically and strategically. On the tactical level, the guys in leadership always play "hide the ball with what they are doing". This gives Republicans a morally secure high-ground to attack whatever the Democrats do. Strategically, it gives us an issue that can both rally our base and makes good sense to independents and many Democrats.

On Friday, House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a statement on transparency. The key passage:

It’s just common sense: Americans should be allowed to read the text of major bills before Congress votes on them.  Previous Congresses, including Republican ones, failed to live up to this standard.  But never before has the failure been as blatant as it has been in the past nine months under Speaker Pelosi.   Things have to change.

There are two key parts to this. First, he grabbed the policy issue and framed it in the adult and serious way "Americans" (not "Members of Congress", which seems like only a populist argument, although some in the media have grabbed the straw man to give the Democrats aircover) should know what Congress is doing so that we can hold them accountable.

The second part is, perhaps, more important. John Boehner has now explicitly rejected the way that he ran the House, said "we have learned", and established a new line in the sand. Furthermore, one of the reforms that he advocates, in this case, a waiting period before legislation can be acted on, actually may impact many of the wasteful spending concerns that actually helped drive him out of office. 

What is so fascinating is the rejection by Senate Democrats and the silence of lefty advocacy groups other than the Sunlight Foundation. In an effort to get a public copy of the healthcare bill before a vote, John Kerry said:

"This is fundamentally a delay tactic," the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate said. "I mean, let's be honest about it. The legislative language, everybody knows, is relatively arcane, legalistic, and most people don't read the legislative language."

That's right. But people who are interested do. People who are experts or people being impacted do, or they hire people to.

And this gets to the final point. Where is the press? Huffington Post is being sent around by Demcorats, because they are giving cover to Democrats. But they aren't really press. But where is the Fourth Estate demanding that they have the information to tell the American people what the debate is about.

Crickets.

You would think that John Boehner repudiating how Republicans ran the House would be worthy of news.

Crickets.

You would think that John Kerry giving cover to the Senate acting without even having legislation (I'm not talking about reading the bill here ...) would be newsworthy.

Crickets outside of Fox and the Washington Times.

In most endeavors, you find one guy willing to sell out his principles because he is so smart, and so shrewd that he and his allies will benefit at the expense of the folks he used to work alongside. One rather extreme example was the Godfather charater Fredo Corleone. Passed over for family leadership by little brother Michael, he decides to prove his worth by working alongside rival mob factions.

This year's version appears to be top PhRMA lobbyist Billy Tauzin 

Much as Fredo sold out his family, Tauzin is selling out free enterprise,

Tauzin was once a Democrat from the Louisiana bayou who saw the partisan light after the 1994 tsunami. Then he spent a decade as a Republican and failed to hand the seat off to his son when he retired. Following his departure from Congress, he settled in as top dog for Big PhRMA, an interest group of drug makers heterofore staunchly opposed to socialized medicine.

Well, now, not so much. Tauzin and the Obama camp have made a secret deal to make sure that the taxpayers guarantee the drug companies windfall profits in the health care "reform" bill. And Billy Drugbucks will pony up $150 M in corporate cash for a media blitzkrieg favoring health care "reform" to try and undo the damage ordinary folks have done speaking their mind at town halls.

Needless to say, very few people other than the co-conspiritors have much nice to say about this sleazy deal.

Here's what liberal  former Labor Secretary Robert Reich had to say.   

When the industry support comes with an industry-sponsored ad campaign in favor of that legislation, the threat to democracy is even greater. Citizens end up paying for advertisements designed to persuade them that the legislation is in their interest. In this case, those payments come in the form of drug prices that will be higher than otherwise, stretching years into the future 

On the other side of the ideological aisle, National Review, blasted Tauzin's deal as a scam. Now House Republican Leader John Boehner unloaded on Tauzin's scheme. A few highlights  Boehner accused Tauzin of caving to a bully ( I think he is being waay too charitable, but )

The “bully” in this case is Big Government.  At your behest, PhRMA has chosen to accommodate a Washington takeover of health care at the expense of the American people in hopes of securing favorable treatment and future profits.  It’s a short-sighted bargain that leaves your own customers and employees behind.  And it now has all the markings of a deal gone sour. 

The Wall Street Journal expressed similar sentiments

Yep, now the Democrats think they can get more concessions from PhRMA.  Sorta like if Eliot Spitzer expected a second night of services from the Emperor's Club for the price of one.

Getting back to the Fredo parallel,  all that guy got for buddying up to Hyman Roth and Moe Greene at the expense of the "folks who brought him" was the undying hatred of his brother, who now deemed him "dead to me now".

Conservatives now aren't going to buy the corporate lies about health care from K Street.  That bridge is now burned down. We think the principles of free enterprise are worth more than some secret government payoff.  PhRMA are now no better than any other group that sells out at the taxpayer's trough seeking corporate welfare. This group is "dead to me" now. 

I hope Billy Tauzin has a long healthy life. But after he finds he's spent over  $100 million of his client's money only to be left with no one in Washington who trusts him, or whom he can trust, I suspect his life as a lobbyist will be cut short.     

Watch this video from the Sunlight Foundation's Read the Bill project:

Read The Bill from Sunlight Foundation on Vimeo.

It is not an accident that there are so many Republicans -- John Boehner, Jeb Hensarling, and Ted Poe -- in this, and that the Democrats -- Brian Baird and Bobby Scott -- are Democrats who are sometimes gettable on Republican votes.

Transparency is an issue that Republicans will win every time in the war of ideas, and the House Democrats are already uncomfortable.

Just last week, Blue Dogs and liberals like Peter DaFazio asked for more regular order. The Democrats are exposed. The Democrats know it.

Now it is time for Republicans to stand up and win this fight once and for all.

Since none of our so-called leaders are going to present an alternative economic recovery package, I'll do it myself.  Items are in no particular order except the order in which they came to me.

1) Slash the Corporate Income Tax Rate to 15% - The United States currently has the Second Highest Corporate Tax Rate in the World.  This puts our companies at a gigantic competitive disadvantage internationally and retards both job growth and the stock market here at home.  Cutting corporate taxes will spur a business led investment boom in the United States.

2) Make Bush Reductions in Capital Gains and Dividends Permanent - While I would love to slash these grossly counterproductive rates further, that's not feasible politically at the moment.  The next best thing would be to send a permanent signal to financial markets.

3) Abolish the Employer Half of the Payroll Tax - As liberals frequently point out, 80% of taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes.  They deserve a big tax cut.  This will also act as a major job creation mechanism.

4) Pass Colombia, South Korea, and Panama Free Trade Agreements - This move is more symbolic than substative, however, it is crucially important.  Passing these agreements would signal to our trading partners that the United States will not turn protectionist like we did in the 1930's.

Passing the Colombia agreement would also weaken an increasingly despotic Hugo Chavez.

5) Establish a 15% flat rate on All Income - This will leave Americans with more money to spend, invest, or do whatever the heck they want to do with it.  It will also do away with the deadweight loss from tax code complexity.  Many other Countries have done this successfully.

Should this prove politically unfeasable, we should still strive to do this for everyone except the top income tax bracket.

6) Create A National Market for Medical Insurance - Rising Medical Costs have been a major economic drag for the past decade.  While the reasons for this are worthy of their own blog post, creating a national market for Medical Insurance instead of 50 separate state markets is the easiest way to lower costs.

7) Drill, Baby, Drill - In addition to harming those nice guys in Tehran, Moscow, and Caracas, increased energy production at home will create oodles of jobs.  It might even make the auto bailout a moot point.

8) Immeadiate Expensing for Business Investment - This will also create a boom in business investment.

9) Boost Defense Spending - This is a policy I support for other reasons.  That said, defense spending has a higher Keynesian Multiplier than anything President Elect Obama is proposing.

10) Abolish the Alternative Maximum Tax - This wildly unfair tax should just be abolished.  I don't care about the rationale.

11) Abolish Sarbanes/Oxley - This onerous regulation, passed during the Enron panic, drives capital and businesses overseas without preventing fraud at home.  Repeal of SarBox would ignite a stock market boom!

12) Abolish Mark to Market - This obscure accounting rule forces companies unnecessarily to lower the value of their assets relative to what they could be sold for.  This was a major factor in the credit freeze.

13) Abolish the Death Tax - Any change in tax policy that both antagonizes liberals and hurts Warren Buffet must be a good idea.

Promoted - a Republican insider frets about leadership.

Today's Examiner editorializes about a proposed ruling from the Bush White House's FCC regarding freedom of the airwaves. It's everything we fear the new Obama administration will do. Except it's coming from a Republican.

George W. Bush has not done much to help the Republican Party. His abysmal approval ratings are a big part of why we suffered so badly in congressional districts last Tuesday. Even in solid Republican districts, his approval ratings are in the 20s or 30s and it's been reported that the the right track/wrong track numbers in these districts are in the teens or even single digits. This administration from the beginning has refused to work with Republicans in congress or at the state level. In short, they've been arrogant bullies to their own people.

Now, let's look at the internal politicking taking place with the Republican leadership race for NRCC Chair. I don't have a dog in this fight. It would seem there certainly are areas where Tom Cole can improve. But will Pete Sessions be a better NRCC Chair? Don't know. Fundraising will be extremely difficult this next cycle (fewer members raising few dollars), as will candidate recruitment (who would want to run for congress when it's going to be tough raising money?) - the two big issues Sessions says he will improve if elected NRCC Chair. Fine. Good luck to whoever ends up in that job next year.

What bothers me most about the Chairman's race is that Boehner and the WHITE HOUSE (i.e., Barry Jackson, the guy who replaced Karl Rove last year) are running the campaign to elect Sessions as NRCC Chair.

Boehner, who refuses to accept any responsibility for losing more than 50 - FIFTY - House seats between 2006 to 2008, wants his own guy at the NRCC. So he's making phone calls to Members and putting the heat on them to vote for Sessions. And his partner in all of this is Jackson, who still has the weight of the White House behind him.

How exactly is this party going to move forward if everyone in leadership is hand-picked by Boehner and the Bush White House? How is that progress?

There won't be one single person in leadership who is independent of Boehner. Aside from the NRCC chairman's race, none of the seats is being contested. Boehner cleared the field and selected his own people.

And what will this yield? What should we expect from a leadership team hand picked by the same people who, as noted in today's Examiner piece, think so little of Republicans and our freedoms that they would allow the FCC to regulate the airwaves with community activists (what's to stop ACORN members will sit on the advisory boards)?

I'm at my wit's end.

There has been plenty of attention given to the House Republicans storming the floor and protesting the refusal of House Democrats to vote on legislation increasing the domestic supply of oil.

Aside from the great theatrics of it, something struck me: for the first time, I really saw John Boehner as a solid minority leader, not just of the House Republicans, but of the GOP overall.

Now, Boehner and the House Republicans had done a great job wrapping Nancy Pelosi around an axle with motions to recommit and other parliamentary maneuvers. Similarly Mitch McConnell schools Harry Reid day in and day out on parliamentary procedure, although it is probably a lot easier to be Senate Minority Leader than Majority Leader. But I don't think that I had ever really seen him clearly define both the Republicans and the Democrats on an issue with anything like the clarity or flair that we saw on Friday.

I have heard a lot of chatter about the leadership races after the elections, especially if John McCain were to lose. Who would be the symbol or the leader of the GOP?

After Friday, and continuing this week, one could actually imagine John Boehner in that role.

Hopefully John McCain will beat Barack Obama -- and you all need to work to make sure that happens --, and it won't come to that. But if he doesn't, I feel a lot better about our leadership than I had before.

House GOP Leader John Boehner’s statement on the Housing Bill this week, which deserved the no vote he was urging, was utterly tone deaf.  Never, never write a sentence like:

“We must take responsible steps to ensure our financial and housing markets are sound, but the Democrats’ bill represents a multi-billion dollar bailout for scam artists and speculative lenders at the expense of American taxpayers.” 

Boehner later rephrased that same sentence at his press conference which predictably dominated the GOP's message on housing.  Republicans should always craft every message and statement assuming that any individual sentence will be picked out of context.  Period.

Voters who read a sentence like Boehner’s hear: "If you’re having trouble making your mortgage payments, Republicans think you’re scum." 

So how could Boehner and his staff have done this differently?  He should have emphasized the distinction between the thousands of people who were sold a bill of goods by shady mortgage brokers, and the shady mortgage brokers themselves.  For example, he could have said: “Our plan would help the people who have truly been victimized without bailing out the scam artists who earned billions by preying on honest folks’ dreams of homeownership.”

Incidentally, Heritage has some good principles that an effective homeowner relief bill should follow.