Rolled Again ?

Are the Republicans about to be rolled by the Democrats on the Super Committee? The Hill reported yesterday that word has leaked out that Republicans on the super committee have put nominal tax increases on the table. This has resulted in the Tea Party circulating a petition blasting any supercommittee compromise that includes tax increases.

The article reports:

“Reports that the Republican members of the committee have agreed to a framework of tax increases to replace spending cuts is appalling,” Tea Party Express co-chairman Amy Kremer wrote in an email sent to members asking them to fight any compromise. “The election of 2010 was a total repudiation of the ‘tax and spend’ mentality that has brought America to a fiscal crisis with excessive spending and an out-of-control national debt.”

The Hill is not necessarily and objective news source and reports that the Tea Party is forcing the Republicans into an uncompromising position. That is not the whole story. The Tea Party members were elected to Congress to stop the runaway spending. Every time they have attempted to do that, they have been met head-on by the Washington establishment–both Republican and Democrat. If the Tea Party cannot stop the spending, the current rate of spending will probably bankrupt the American economy by next summer. Frankly, until the Republican leadership changes, I don’t believe we have any hope of solving our economic crisis. The other thing to remember here is that the Democrats have done very little compromising–they are letting the Republicans negotiate with themselves in the hope that the Republicans will either cave or no deal will be reached. Either way, the Republicans will have a very difficult time retaining any House of Representative seats in 2012. The Tea Party was elected to do something. If they do nothing, they will probably not be reelected.

The problem is not that our taxes are too low. The problem is that government spending, traditionally at about 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are now over 20 percent. It is time to cut the spending!

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