Lately, one of the subjects of water-cooler conversations has been whether or not Congressman Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) will seek another term in the House of Representatives. Thomas has been in the house for decades, and it is often talked about that he is ready to retire. That having been said, it is also frequently talked about that he is persuing a way to continue to have as much say in the next session of Congress, given that the House rules prohibit the moderate GOPer from California from serving beyond this, his third term as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Thomas is a controversial character, who has ruffled a lot of feathers and is disliked by many. That said, he has been in Congress for a long time, and often times it is seniority, not popularity, that decided your fate. Now, though, Thomas may be at a crossroads where he will need friends, and that is not his long suit. On the other hand, he recently chose wisely on the race for House Majority Leader, weighing in at the end, quite publicly, for John Boehner.
So, will he stay or will he go? I don’t know. But here is a recent nugget from FR friend Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board in the WSJ’s Political Diary e-mail update:
We’re hearing that Rep. Bill Thomas of California, who now holds the lofty position of Ways and Means Committee chairman, will make a run for Budget Committee chairman next year. Rep. Thomas, the economic czar of the House, is one of the craftiest of all Republicans and a man who has an encyclopedic knowledge of budget and tax issues. But he also has earned a reputation for heavy-handedness. Ways and Means Committee members grouse that his management style is "dictatorial" and "iron-fisted."
A Thomas power play for the Budget Committee chairmanship is guaranteed to ruffle feathers. Conservatives favor one of the younger, more reform-minded members of the Republican caucus to run the committee. Two names being pushed by Republican Study Committee members are Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Jeb Henserling of Texas. The two are cosponsors of the Family Protection Budget Act that would repeal the 1974 Budget Act, restoring the line-item veto and putting spending restraint back in the budget process.
Reformers in the House are beginning to complain of the musical chairs being played by committee chairmen, who slip from one chairmanship gavel to another every six years. The six-year term limit that Republicans established when they took over Congress is 1995 was intended to keep bringing new blood into the chairman slots. But a system of privileged rotation has been established instead.
Mr. Thomas’s great accomplishment as head of the tax writing committee was passage of the capital gains and dividend tax cuts. He saved both from extinction. Lately, he has kept all of Washington’s tax community on edge with his announcement that he will unveil a grand opus tax reform plan sometime in the weeks ahead. Mr. Thomas is said to be fashioning a grandiose plan that would fix the tax system, the health care system, and the retirement system in one fell swoop. Most political analysts believe that Mr. Thomas has run out of time to enact such a sweeping plan since he has to vacate the Ways and Means chairmanship at the end of the year. That’s why he’s said to be eyeing the Budget committee chairmanship slot.
Mr. Thomas also is said to have desires to gain a leadership position once Denny Hastert steps down as speaker in 2008, rescrambling all the leadership slots. The consensus is that Rep. Thomas has steamrollered over too many adversaries in the GOP caucus to win such a race. He has a personality as soft as sandpaper. One of his House colleagues and a Thomas supporter tells me: "Bill’s greatest asset is that he’s the smartest guy we have on economic policy. His greatest liability is that he knows it."
— Stephen Moore
February 26th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Saturday’s Resolutions Committee meeting at CRP convention–
Committee Chairman, Bob Philibosian, is noted for his heavy handed gavel. This meeting was so obviously pre-scripted that when one confused committee member stood to speak off cue, the chair asked if he did not want to step aside to hear another member first.
That no member of the committee objected to this is an indication to me that the committee of 20 odd members is stacked with those willing to go along with whatever is pre-determined by an unsee and unaccountable individual or group.
I was embarrassed for the CRP by that meeting. Then, in General Session, to have Mr. Philibosian refer to the committee meeting as a full and open debate on the issues was laughable!