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GOP senator upbraids colleagues - Gregg hits $45b tax-cut package
Boston Globe ^ | December 9, 2006 | Rick Klein

Posted on 12/09/2006 8:03:22 AM PST by TFine80

WASHINGTON -- Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire yesterday used his last major floor speech as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee to blast his own party's leadership in Congress, accusing Republican leaders of engaging in the type of fiscal recklessness that he said led voters to oust the GOP from power. Gregg, who will give up the Budget Committee gavel when his party relinquishes control of Congress in January, issued his unusually harsh critique in reference to a sweeping tax-cut bill that Republicans were rushing through in the final hours of the congressional session. "The American people took the reins of government away from the Republican Party relative to the Republican Congress in this last election," Gregg said in a speech on the Senate floor. "They did so, I think, in large part because they were tired of our hypocrisy as a party on the issue of fiscal responsibility. And it would appear that their concerns are justified. It is true, I guess."

(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New Hampshire
KEYWORDS: budget; congress; gregg; judd
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To: CGTRWK
A tax cut without a cut in spending is really just a deferment.

Okay then. Give me a deferment.

21 posted on 12/09/2006 8:49:21 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: teletech

Jug Head is a pretty good senator. Most of the time. And he didn't "lose". He was reelected to his third term 2 years ago.


22 posted on 12/09/2006 9:00:05 AM PST by Past Your Eyes (Do what you love and the ridicule will follow.)
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To: lowbridge

Instability in the tax code is a bad thing. Having the top bracket tax rate that increases 28% overnight (i.e. 1993) when the deferment comes due does a lot to ruin responsible financial planning.


23 posted on 12/09/2006 9:04:35 AM PST by CGTRWK
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

All Tax cuts are good because of one simple reason they roll back the baseline of economic repression by a government that already and they tighten the noose on spending and eventually the that noose will choke off the beastly tentacle of government reach or cause a conflagration that will force hard decisions to be made. The spending problem is real but it can be addressed with economic growth and a role back of the many bloated federal agencies. (Not that we will see that happen anytime soon) One critical failure of the Bush Administration is that in trying to capture Democrat issues by redirecting spending they have grown government reach in the name of compassion which they have received absolutely no credit for. One can not out spend a socialist who sees no logical limit to spending or government acquisition and redistribution of wealth.

The government is a liberal's Jesus Christ. It is the their way to salvation and the correction of a world they see as being indifferent to the promotion of sexual diversity, population control, abdication of basic laws of nature, economic redistribution, and the goal of achievement of environmental stasis. It is through this liberal hope that mankind can step down and sit beside his chimpanzee brothers while politburos of the more enlightened direct the extinction of man and progress. (Thankfully before this happens they will all be killed by men who don't care about their political sensibilities.)

That said I believe that raising taxes has become almost impossible on a federal level and I see a long overdue correction that will result in a final collision between spending and revenue. It will be at this time that many of the great corpses of economic liberalism will become ripe with stench and reach their final logical conclusion and the pyramid of parasitism will collapse and will have to be buried for this nation to survive. The alternative is a path not unlike what has occurred with all the other previously "great" nations of the world, a path that leads progressively downward.

The one thing that all those who wait eagerly for the US to fall assuming they will capture the ghost of prosperity as it passes is that those socialist centers that thrive on the backs of US productivity will fall also. This is what the Islamists see as the goal. The US is the fulcrum of the economic world and with the productivity gap with the rest of the world widening the fall will be a Tsunami that sweeps away all the modern naivetés that makes the socialist dreams(pyramid schemes)a possibility.


24 posted on 12/09/2006 9:12:52 AM PST by Maelstorm
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To: CGTRWK
Instability in the tax code is a bad thing. Having the top bracket tax rate that increases 28% overnight (i.e. 1993) when the deferment comes due does a lot to ruin responsible financial planning.

Ah forget it. I'll just go back to not paying taxes. I call it giving myself a tax cut.

25 posted on 12/09/2006 9:16:32 AM PST by lowbridge
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

"Tax cuts work only if there's a corresponding decrease in government spending too."

You quite possibly are the winner of the biggest understatement in 12 years of Republican Senate/House rule!


26 posted on 12/09/2006 9:25:59 AM PST by poobear (Political Left, continually accusing their foes of what THEY themselves do every day.)
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To: poobear

I used to think "On with the tax cuts, then the shortfall will force us to cut spending", but this is not how it works. Spending keeps on happening, and the Red Chinese keep happily buying up our debt.

In my mind, spending cuts have to now happen first. Because if the Chinese own us, you can kiss keeping your paycheck goodbye.


27 posted on 12/09/2006 9:45:22 AM PST by VictoryGal (Never give up, never surrender!)
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To: TFine80

A tax cut should ideally be followed by a spending cut when the economy is doing well. But a tax cut is not necessarily a deficit because it can lead to growth which means higher tax receipts.


28 posted on 12/09/2006 9:50:01 AM PST by GregH
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To: TFine80

A tax cut should ideally be followed by a spending cut when the economy is doing well. But a tax cut is not necessarily a deficit because it can lead to growth which means higher tax receipts.


29 posted on 12/09/2006 9:50:01 AM PST by GregH
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To: TFine80
Gregg mainly attacked the spending increases in the bill, not the tax breaks, and so his position is being unfairly attacked. Yes, the primary purposes of the bill was to extend tax cuts, but there was also billions in new spending tacked on and that's Gregg's problem.
30 posted on 12/09/2006 11:27:03 AM PST by AntiGuv ("..I do things for political expediency.." - Sen. John McCain on FOX News)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
The Senator's right. What good are tax cuts if it's going to get swallowed up by spending anyway?

Tax cuts work only if there's a corresponding decrease in government spending too.

Not to worry now because the RATS will stop those pesky tax cuts but at the same time they will spend a whole bunch more than the Republican controlled Congress. Get ready for TAX INCREASES WITHOUT SPENDING CUTS!

31 posted on 12/09/2006 2:08:50 PM PST by teletech (Friends don't let friends vote DemocRAT)
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To: Past Your Eyes
Jug Head is a pretty good senator. Most of the time. And he didn't "lose". He was reelected to his third term 2 years ago.

Since the Republicans are no longer in control of Congress, I guess he feels he can speak his mind and kick his own party when their down. What a guy!

32 posted on 12/09/2006 2:11:54 PM PST by teletech (Friends don't let friends vote DemocRAT)
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To: misterrob
They should have rammed home a spending reduction before walking out the door.

I'm with you, but I believe that the Dems will get more of their programs signed into law while controlling only the congress than the Republican leaders managed to do while controlling both congress and the White House.

As an example, they've already lined up Trent "share the power" Lott in a leadership position... True stupidity.

33 posted on 12/09/2006 2:22:40 PM PST by RJL
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To: lowbridge
True, but give us the tax cuts anyways. We taxpayers can use it.

Why? Tax cuts do nothing but complicate the tax code more & the extra revenue gets wasted on big government programs.

34 posted on 12/09/2006 7:21:47 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist (Why can't Republicans stand up to Democrats like they do to terrorists?)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Why? Tax cuts do nothing but complicate the tax code more & the extra revenue gets wasted on big government programs.

How about if I give myself a tax cut by not paying any taxes? That way it wont go to waste and I can get cable tv again :-)

35 posted on 12/10/2006 12:36:27 PM PST by lowbridge
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To: jwalsh07
Tax cuts put downward pressure on government spending in and of themselves.

If only that were true. The government spends just as much regardless and always more each year.

36 posted on 12/10/2006 5:48:19 PM PST by GraniteStateConservative (...He had committed no crime against America so I did not bring him here...-- Worst.President.Ever.)
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To: GraniteStateConservative

It is true in macro terms.


37 posted on 12/10/2006 6:12:32 PM PST by jwalsh07
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