Friday, August 6, 2010

I guess I spoke too soon yesterday...

...about George Voinovich, Republican senator from Ohio. In a piece from The Hill, "Old Washington hands break with GOP leaders on Bush-era tax cuts" (my emphasis):

A number of old Republican hands warning of a deficit crisis have split with the GOP leadership over extending the George W. Bush-era tax cuts.

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), President Reagan’s budget chief David Stockman and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan have each argued that extending the tax cuts — set to expire at year’s end — would increase the nation’s $13 trillion debt.

“It’s like tax reductions, you don’t need to pay for them? To me, that’s nonsense,” Voinovich said.
___

One reason for the divide between folks like Voinovich, worried about the debt above all else, and party leaders is a fundamental difference in economic views.

While GOP leaders want the deficit reductions that Voinovich has called for, the Ohio senator and other deficit hawks are also open to raising new revenues through tax increases.

Voinovich noted that Stockman left the Reagan administration after arguing with colleagues who were pushing for more tax cuts on top of the ones Stockman helped craft in 1981.

“Supply-siders, it’s what George Bush, Papa Bush, said was voodoo economics,” Voinovich told The Hill. “There’s still a big debate about that [in the GOP].”
___

Voinovich’s solution to the debt problem looks like past deficit-reduction deals — less spending and new taxes.

“They’re going to have to raise more money,” he said. “You’ve got to do both things: You’ve got to cut expenses, and you have to raise revenues.”

To strike that deal, Voinovich has pinned his hopes on the bipartisan fiscal commission that President Obama created.

“I’m leaving here, but I’m praying to the Holy Spirit that the people on the debt commission will be able to rise to the occasion and really think about the future of the country — and come back with some tough stuff that will get us back on keel,” he said.

No comments: