Archive for the ‘Republican’ Category

Balancing the Budget Is Impossible Without Killing a Republican … – Reason

Let's say you were a Republican member of Congress with a sincere desire to craft a federal budget that would achieve balance by the end of the decade.

That's a noble goal! Balancing the budget wouldn't pay down the $31 trillion national debt, of course, but it would at least stop adding to it. There's just one small issue, your advisers tell you. Well, three issues, actually. You can't cut spending on the military (including veterans programs) or entitlement programs, and you can't advocate for letting the 2017 Trump tax cuts expire. That's sacred ground, they say, and suggesting any of those three ideas will end with you getting hoisted out of office by pitchfork-carrying voters, a loud-mouthed primary challenger, and/or the angry ghost of Ronald Reagan.

You can't pass a balanced budget if you're not a member of Congress, so you agree. Those three things are off the table. Now, all you have to do is get a majority of Congress and President Joe Biden to agree to cut literally every dollar of discretionary spending out of the budget and you'll have accomplished your goal. Almost.

This isn't an exaggeration. It's the actual results of a recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) review of potential paths for using spending cuts to balance the federal budget over 10 years.

In one scenario outlined by the CBO, Congress would have to cut 86 percent of all discretionary spending if it wanted to balance the budget by 2033 without touching the military, veterans programs, or entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. In a slightly altered version of that same scenario in which the Trump tax cuts were not allowed to expire as intended in 2025, Congress would have to cut 100 percent of discretionary spendingand the country would still face a $20 billion deficit.

The CBO analysis helps to illustrate the seriousness of America's fiscal dilemma. While many libertarians might cheer the prospect of the federal government zeroing out all discretionary spending over 10 years, that's simply not a realistic proposal that could get anywhere near the requisite support in Congress.

Instead, it should be clear that any attempt at bringing the federal budget deficit under control must kill (or at least wound) the Republicans' sacred cows of military spending, entitlements, and the recent Trump tax cuts. Right now, however, leading Republicans including former President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (RCalif.) have vowed to keep Social Security out of any long-term spending deals. Rep. Jim Banks (RInd.)has promised to oppose any bill that cuts defense spending.

As for the tax cuts, they're technically temporarya gimmick that allowed Republicans to game the CBO's scoring of the tax cut billbut keeping the lower individual income tax rates in place past 2025 is a top priority for Republicans.

This CBO analysis was a response to a question submitted by two of the top Democrats in the Senate's budget-making process: Budget Committee Chair Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.) and Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (DOre.). As such, there's an element of it that comes off as a partisan exercisean opportunity to point out that spending cuts alone can't balance the budget, or just to highlight the impossibility of Republican demands surrounding the debt ceiling fight.

"As this analysis shows, no amount of cuts can make their math add up," Whitehouse said in a statement. "It is a farce."

But the CBO's numbers aren't partisan and neither is the blame for America's massive budget deficits. These latest projections only reveal how difficult the choices ahead will be. If Republicans are serious about trying to balance the budget, there can be no more sacred cows.

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Balancing the Budget Is Impossible Without Killing a Republican ... - Reason

Opinion | The Trump RINO Test Is Ridiculous – POLITICO

Records arent kept on such things, but Donald Trump is clearly the most promiscuous user of the word RINO in Republican Party history. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

Opinion by Rich Lowry

03/23/2023 04:30 AM EDT

Rich Lowry is editor in chief of National Review and a contributing writer with Politico Magazine.

You might have heard that Ron DeSantis is a RINO.

Of course, the former congressman and Florida governor hasnt departed from Republican orthodoxy in any significant way during his career (and, in fact, now hes helping to define it); hes loyally supported the partys candidates across the spectrum, and, as his fame and power have grown, campaigned for them; and hes been a determined party-builder in Florida.

In any rational world, the pejorative Republican In Name Only shouldnt show up within hailing distance of DeSantis, but former President Donald Trump is trying to make it stick.

Records arent kept on such things, but Trump is clearly the most promiscuous user of RINO in Republican Party history. He applies it to everyone from Republicans who now have a genuinely strained connection to the party, like Liz Cheney, to stand-out governors like DeSantis and Brian Kemp of Georgia.

Its not as though RINO, an insult and not the most subtle one, was ever a precise term. Once upon a time, it was an acronym applied to moderate Republicans who accommodated the other side on substance and process. In recent years, though, Trump has appropriated it as completely as the phrase fake news.

In a sign of the personalization of the Republican Party, one doesnt get deemed a RINO for showing disloyalty to the party as an institution, or to its political principles and policy commitments, but for crossing one man, who himself, as it happens, has little loyalty to the party.

On top of everything else, Trumps use of the term is a case study in projection.

Trump called Kemp, one of the most stalwart Republicans in the country, a horrendous RINO who has betrayed the people of Georgia, and betrayed Republican voters.

Hes inveighed against RINO former Attorney General Bill Barr.

He endorsed Kari Lake in last years Arizona gubernatorial race by saying she will do a far better job than RINO Governor Doug Ducey.

These, and many other Republicans, earned the sobriquet by not acquiescing in Trumps schemes to overturn the 2020 election, or endorse his conspiracy theories about it. The 2022 midterms proved that an obsession with the 2020 election is electoral poison, such that a true RINO scheming to destroy the party from within would want as many Republicans to share this fixation as possible.

Of course, thats exactly what Trump has sought. Its not that he is trying to deliberately to undermine the party, but that his own personal interests and psychological needs take precedence. Hed no more sacrifice anything he truly cares about for the sake of the party than hed jump off the Verrazano bridge.

Pretty much everyone he calls a RINO has devoted his or her adult life to the Republican Party. Trump is different. Prior to 2012, he ping-ponged back and forth among various party affiliations. So attenuated was his connection to the party in 2016, RNC chairman Reince Priebus famously fashioned a loyalty pledge to get him to commit to supporting the eventual nominee.

This makes Trump an odd arbiter of whos a genuine Republican or not. Its not the zeal of the convert, because his own conversion is still tenuous and situational. A fear that haunts Republicans about 2024 is that someone will beat Trump in the primary campaign, and the former president will turn around and try to sabotage the nominee out of spite.

This isnt a far-fetched worry. When Brian Kemp wouldnt do his bidding after 2020, Trump issued forth with arguably the most RINO-worthy sentiment of any major Republican in recent memory. Stacey, would you like to take his place? Its OK with me, he said of Stacey Abrams at a rally. Of course having her, I think, might be better than having your existing governor, if you want to know what I think. Might very well be better.

Its hard to see any other Republican living that down, but Trump cant himself be a RINO by definition. If he decides to try to blow up the GOP in 2024, bizarrely, the supposed RINOs will be the ones who decide to stick with the Republicans.

The level of personal deference required to pass the Trump RINO test is extraordinary, and apparently escalating. Days ago, his loyalists were braying for DeSantis to speak out about the possibility of a Trump indictment. DeSantis ended up making a cogent and pointed critique of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, while stipulating that he doesnt know about paying hush money to porn stars.

This set off the likes of Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell who cant bear the slightest criticism of Trump, as if he were St. Francis of Assisi instead of Donald J. Trump of Mar-a-Lago. When DeSantis doubled down by talking about the importance of truth and character in an interview with Piers Morgan, Donald Trump Jr. lashed out by slamming the governor for what else? acting on orders from his RINO establishment owners.

Yes, truth and character are now RINO values.

Obviously, the label itself has outlived its usefulness, although its not going away until Trump goes away. For that to happen Republicans will have to become, in Trump terms, a RINO party not any less conservative, less fierce, or less Republican, but no longer beholden to the man who has successfully made himself the measure of all things.

Trumps definition of a RINO is a travesty, and its used to abuse Republicans in good standing whose commitment to the party is deeper and more principled than his will ever be.

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Opinion | The Trump RINO Test Is Ridiculous - POLITICO

Gov. Evers: Reacts to Republican rejection of historic investment in … – WisPolitics.com

MADISON Gov. Tony Evers today released a statement after Republicans on the State Building Commission (SBC) deadlocked the Commission on a 4-4 vote on every motion that included projects in the governors capital budget recommendations, rejecting the governors proposed nearly $3.8 billion in investments in state infrastructure. Gov. Evers plan, releasedlast month, represented one of the strongest investments to date for Wisconsins facility infrastructure and included major projects in both Republican and Democratic legislative districts in 28 counties across the state. Additionally, the governors recommendations were expected to provide approximately 45,000 family-supporting jobs and an estimated $6.8 billion in economic impact.

Our capital budget addressed critical infrastructure needs across our state in a way that kept borrowing low, saved the taxpayers money in the long run, and created critical local jobs and economic development, said Gov. Evers. While Republican leaders claim to support these goals, their action today shows that they would simply rather play politics than have a meaningful discussion about how these projects would serve the needs of the folks they represent. Despite todays unfortunate outcome, we willcontinue to fight for these projects as we work to invest in and build 21st centuryinfrastructure in communities across our state.

Republicans rejected important projects such as:Continued investments in correctional facilities to further work towards closing Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake as juvenile facilitiesbycompletingthe Milwaukee Type 1 facilityand anew Type 1 facility on Department of Corrections-owned property in Oregon, the expansion of the Grow Academy in Oregon,and astudy and plan for a third Type 1 facility in the Northeastern region;Significant investment of approximately $1.8 billion for capital improvement projects through the University of Wisconsin (UW) System at campuses across the state. These projectsincludethe Engineeringreplacementbuilding at UW-Madison, theEauClaire Science/Health Science Building phase II, and the Camp Randall Sports Center replacement at UW-Madison. In addition, numerous critical maintenance and repair projects at Central Utility Plants, replacement of deteriorating facilities such as the Humanities building and Music Hall at UW-Madison, and important renovation work to address deferred maintenance at key campus buildings atUW-Oshkosh and UW-Stevens Point, and many more;Upgrades to the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King and purchasing the Wisconsin Veterans Museum location for future upgrades;Investments in state parksandforests and upgrades to Fire Response RangerStations;Investmentsin health services facilities, including utility infrastructure, support services, and patient care;Projects withfederal support for Wisconsin National Guardfacilities;Additional investmentto complete thenew Wisconsin History Museum; andAddressing the states backlog of deferred maintenance by providing the largest investment to date for all state agencies, including the UW System, for small to mid-sized capital maintenance and repair projects across the state in theAll AgencyProgram.This action is a repeat of the same obstruction by Republican SBC members during the 2019-21 Capital Budget and the 2021-23 Capital Budget by abandoning the decades-old institutional tradition of recommending project requests with bipartisan support. Todays decision by Republicans on theCommission marksthethird time in SBC records the Commission has failed to collaborate on a State Building Program. This action is contrary to the regular meetings when SBC memberscome together multiple times throughout the year toagreetoprovideauthority to construct projectsin the State Building Program.

The complete 2023-25 Capital Budget agency requests and the governors recommendations can be foundhere.The SBC is chaired by Gov.Eversand made up of the following members:Sen. RobertWirch;Sen. JoanBallweg;Sen.AndrJacque;Rep. Jill Billings;Rep. Rob Swearingen;Rep. RobertWittke; andBarb Worcester, citizen member. An online version of this release is availablehere.

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Gov. Evers: Reacts to Republican rejection of historic investment in ... - WisPolitics.com

Is the Republican Primary Already Over? – Puck

Last August, as F.B.I. agents hauled boxes of classified documents out of Mar-a-Lago, I surveyed a few Republican and MAGA operatives about how this latest legal woe might impact Donald Trumps political future. For a brief moment, the former presidents opponents entertained the notion that surely this would be the scandal that broke his hold over the Republican Party. Wasnt Trump actively endangering national security by leaving sensitive nuclear secrets in his desk?

But Trumps allies were almost giddy about the optics, correctly recognizing the F.B.I. raid as an opportunity to galvanize the base, raise more money, and temporarily paralyze the 2024 field. Nobody is worried, one G.O.P. insider told me at the time, relaying the sentiment around Mar-a-Lago. And worry they did not: Days after an underwhelming midterm performance in which Trumps highest-profile endorsees crashed and burned, and Ron DeSantis cruised to a resounding re-election victory, Trump announced that he was running for president. Eight months later, Trump has only gained strength in G.O.P. polls, with DeSantis and Nikki Haley, his two closest rivals, trailing by double digits. (Mike Pence, Glenn Youngkin, Mike Pompeo, Tim Scott, and other would-be challengers barely register.)

Over the past few days, of course, its been dj vu all over again as Trump rages on Truth Social about his looming indictment and arrest over his 2016 hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. So far, theres been no arrestin fact, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told the grand jury to stay home on Wednesday, and to remain on standbybut that has not stopped Trump from whipping the media into a frenzy, and urging his supporters to protest in the streets, Jan. 6 style, if he is arraigned. As the Times reports, Trump has been fixated on the optics of a potential perp walk, unlikely as that is to happen, and the ensuing spectacle. His campaign has already raised more than $1.5 million on the news.

I asked a number of Republicans close to the top candidates to predict how an indictment would affect Trumps campaign, and whether it would boost his standing in the G.O.P. presidential primary. The overwhelming consensus was succinctly captured by Alex Bruesewitz, C.E.O. of the MAGA-focused consulting firm X Strategies: Trump wins.

This assessment doesnt come only from MAGA-blinded Trump allies, either: Republicans across the spectrum, from DeSantis fans to Never Trumpers, echoed Bruesewitzs conclusion. The indictments only strengthen Trumps grip on [the party], Reed Galen, the co-founder of the anti-MAGA Lincoln Project, told me. The base is all he needs, but the electeds and Fox [viewers] are already behind him. Sure, rallying the base around the former presidents infidelity might create a liability down the road, especially with women, moderates, and independents who are fatigued or turned off by the behavior. But winning a general election is a problem for the future, as several consultants noted, and Trump has more than a year to worry about it.

Republican leaders arent outwardly hand-wringing over the electability issue either. In the short term, its good politics calling for an investigation into Bragg. And as one G.O.P. insider observed, the prospect of the partys potential standard-bearer standing trial isnt consuming much headspaceespecially when it distracts the electorate from debates over Social Security or the looming debt ceiling fight. Folks arent paying attention [to the arrest], honestly, this insider told me.

Still, Trumps escalating legal woeshe is also facing dual federal investigations from the D.O.J., plus a state investigation in Georgiaappears to have created an opening for his rivals. While nearly every potential 24 candidate has made noises about prosecutorial overreach, its notable that DeSantis chose this week to begin publicly testing various counter-punches at Trump. In a preview of his interview with Fox Nations Piers Morgan (the full video will air on Thursday), DeSantis takes shots at Trumps character and leadership style, boasts that hed run the government with no daily drama, suggests that he would have fired Dr. Fauci, and extols the Founding Fathers for putting the Republic over [their] own personal interestas opposed to people who would, for instance, pay hush money to porn stars.

In reality, theres a little less here than meets the eye, despite Morgans bombastic attempt to hype the interview in the New York Post. A person familiar with the full interview described the blistering attack as mostly restrained responses to Morgans provocations, not direct assaults on his potential rival. Its not like he kicked a door down to start attacking Trump, this person said. He answered questions asked of himand showed that the bullying tactics dont work on him. Hes his own man. The loose-but-guarded style of DeSantiss interview with Morgan is likely indicative of how he will approach Trump in a presidential face-offavoiding direct contrasts unless asked, rather than initiating fights, and brushing off Trumps insults with a little bit of eye-rolling, self-deprecating humor. (I dont know how to spell [DeSanctimonious], said DeSantis, a Yale and Harvard grad. I dont really know what it means, but I kinda like it, its long, its got a lot of vowels.)

Ignoring Trump is a strategy DeSantis has used to great effect over the past two years as a way to raise his profile without alienating the base. There is also a hope, in some corners of Florida, that it will essentially elevate DeSantis above Trumps mudslinging. And on some level, it seems to be workingfew people in the mainstream conservative media have entertained Trumps lurid, totally unsubstantiated insinuations that DeSantis groomed underage girls or is secretly gay. But when I ran this theory by a well-placed G.O.P. comms officiala DeSantis fan, mind youhe fully disagreed with the governors approach, calling it consultant stuff that sends all the wrong signals to a base craving authenticity and strength.

Its one thing to say Im not gonna get in the mud with the former president, said the comms official, who advises Republican campaigns. [But] if DeSantis thinks this is gonna get any easier, hes wrong. Its gonna get a lot harder. And he has to understand what hes up against. Hes up against a pitbull. And you cannot handle a pitbull by acting like its not there. Its just gonna bite you and maim you.

The question, as always in presidential politics, comes down to the game theory of optimizing your message to win a primary or to win a general election. In his Fox Nation interview, DeSantis presented himself as a strong challenger to Biden, not Trump. But winning over more hardcore primary voters comes first, chronologically speaking, and the possibility of Trump becoming a MAGA martyr has clearly thrown a wrench into the mixespecially if there are calls for DeSantis to use his powers as governor to interfere with an extradition request from New York. (If I were governor of Florida, I would not allow any Floridian to be hauled before a Soros-backed prosecutor in a blue city over politics, Matt Gaetz told NewsNation on Wednesday.) Legally, DeSantis cannot stop a valid extradition request, but he might be able to slow it down. And if Jan. 6 has taught us anything, its that the U.S. Criminal Code and Supreme Court precedent have never stopped the MAGA tendency for wishful constitutional thinkingor calls for retribution against people who dont fulfill their legal fantasies.

At the moment, DeSantis has exhibited a not-my-problem approach to the Trump-Bragg ordeal, telling reporters on Monday that his office was not involved in any way, while shrugging that he personally didnt know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. For a general election, this might play well to a Trump-fatigued electorate, but in the eyes of the G.O.P. comms official, DeSantis has already made a critical mistake that could tank his standing with the MAGA basenot just in this election cycle, but in 2028 and beyond.

This is a former president getting politically targeted by an obviously politicized judicial system, he observed. Its just wrong on its face, and we wanted him to stand up for that principle. Instead, you saw his personal dynamic and rivalry with the former president cloud his response and that hurt him massively. His prediction: the next round of Republican presidential polling will see DeSantis drop by double digits. It was all baked into the cake with the audience, with the base voters, and he just whiffed on it. He just misread it.

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Is the Republican Primary Already Over? - Puck

The Hempstead County Republican Committee started the new year … – SWARK Today

Back row: Mark Ross, Sheila Bruce, Brandon Barrington. Front row: Drury Hoover, Mary Ann Lewis, Steve Atchley, Karen Smith, Debbie Marsh, Mary Ann Lerew, John Hicks.

Chairman: Steve Atchley

1st Vice Chairman: Mark Ross

2nd Vice Chairman: Karen Smith

Secretary: Mary Ann Lerew

Treasurer: Debbie Marsh

State Committee Man: Mark Ross

State Committee Woman: Drury Hoover

District Committee Man: John Hicks

District Committee Woman: Debbie Marsh

Election Commissioners: Debbie Marsh & Brandon Barrington

Activity Coordinators: Mary Ann Lewis, Barbara Cox, & Sarah Darling

Young Republicans: Debbie Marsh, Debbie Martin, & Daniel Thompson

Membership & PR: Sheila Bruce, Karen Smith, & Mark Ross

Several activities and fundraisers are planned, including a trip to the Capital in Little Rock in March, an information booth and membership drive at the Train Day / Trade Day Festival in May, and a Mothers Day bake sale. They are also starting a group for Young Republicans to encourage participation and education in government processes.

The HCRC has monthly meetings on the 3rd Thursday every month at the Amigo Juan banquet room that are open to the public. If you would like more information or would like to become a member, please contact Steve Atchley 870.703.8753 or Sheila Bruce 870-703-5072.

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The Hempstead County Republican Committee started the new year ... - SWARK Today