"Which pledge is most important… the pledge to uphold your oath to the Constitution of the United States or a pledge from a special interest group who claims to speak for all American conservatives when, in fact, they really don't? The fact is we have enormous urgent problems in front of us that have to be addressed and have to be addressed in a way that will get 60 votes in the Senate… and something that the president will sign… Where's the compromise that will save our country?" – Senator Tom Coburn.
Coburn is emerging as one of, to me, the real heroes in this battle to, yes, save the country. He believes, as I do, that risking more months and years before we make the decisions that alone can save us from the risk of default or a new depression is too big a risk. He also believes that ruling any tax hikes out of consideration is simply a bizarre ideological response.
The Bush tax cuts were premised (falsely) on a large and growing surplus. I supported them as a way to prevent all that revenue being soaked up by the feds. But they were very quickly revealed as imprudent.
They were imprudent because the surplus wasn't real (it was largely a function of the tech bubble) and because the country was about to embark on two massively expensive global wars and a massive new domestic entitlement, Medicare D. They were only passed on the condition that if circumstances evolved which revealed them to be imprudent, they would be sunsetted by now.
Like Coburn, I think we have a golden opportunity to raise necessary revenues without hiking tax rates, if we do this through tax reform. Norquist responds not by substantively defending his draconian supply-side mess of a budget proposal, but by claiming Coburn had broken a no-tax-increase pledge in 2004. Yes: 2004.
I remain a fan of Coburn's in this, if not in social policy. The real fiscal conservative is not playing ideological games right now. He's seeking a politically viable compromise on spending and taxes in which both parties will need to take their lumps. I see no other practical way to avoid the iceberg ahead.
The Dish 