NEW VERSION OF PAYCHECK PROTECTION?
Lew Uhler, President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, and the ‘father’ of current Paycheck Protection movement is looking towards a new ballot measure for November of next year. This one would have a different twist to it. Here is a pull-quote from an interview that Uhler has in today’s George Skelton column (featured on the FR main page):
Unlike Prop. 75, which would have required public employee unions to obtain annual written permission from members to spend their dues on politics, the reincarnated version will attack unions from a different angle.
It will be modeled after a Utah law called the "voluntary contributions act." That law forbids public employee unions from spending any dues on politics. All politicking must be funded through a political action committee. And governments are prohibited from collecting PAC money with payroll deductions.
"I’m not at all convinced that we as taxpayers are responsible for picking up the cost of union political fundraising," asserts Uhler, president of the National Tax Limitation Committee, which he says has 100,000 dues-paying members.
FUND ON PELOSI AND BLUE DOG DEMS IN CONGRESS
Today’s Golden Pen award-winning opinion piece on the FlashReport main page is written by the Wall Street Journal’s amazing editorial staff member John Fund (a native Californian, and FR friend). John looks at the dynamics of this closely divided Congress, and provides some interesting insights. Here is a pull quote, and then you can read the rest on your own:
GOP budget blueprint will now actually increase the deficit. That’s because Republicans plan to make some of President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, thus expanding the deficit overall. But Republicans reply that separate votes are held on the budget cuts and tax policy. "There is no arguing that the reconciliation bill reduces the growth in federal spending by $50 billion," says Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. "That’s an up-or-down vote no Democrat would vote in favor of." She also points out that the tax cuts on capital gains and dividends the Blue Dogs are balking at extending helped create three million new jobs in the past two years and helped bring in a revenue stream that has knocked $95 billion off of this year’s anticipated deficit. By their actions, the Blue Dogs are unwilling to vote for spending restraint while at the same time they oppose growth-oriented tax cuts. That’s a recipe for a much bigger deficit in the long run. One reason for their reluctance to cross the aisle and back any GOP budget is party pressure. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, furious that Blue Dogs provided the critical votes that passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement earlier this year, has laid down the law on party discipline. While it has never been made explicit, House Democrats I spoke with are convinced they will lose committee assignments if they vote for a GOP-backed budget. How else to explain the complete unanimity of opposition from House Democrats?"
THE GOAL OF THE PARTY ISN’T ELECTORAL VICTORY, BUT POLICY ACHIEVEMENTS
Finally, here is my "must read" Commentary from Sunday, which many who only read the FR from the office would have missed….
It begins thusly:
"The Republican Party has abandoned fiscal conservatism and embraced a budget system with no accountability," he said. (The short article is linked on the FR main page.)
Why embarrassed? I’m embarrassed for the opportunity lost. That the Republican Party nationally has an elected GOP President and members of our Party hold a majority of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, yet, there has been growth, not reduction, in federal spending in Washington.
And you can read the rest here.