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The Spectacle Blog
The Hill’s Michael O’Brien reports that Tom Coburn, one of the Republican members of the Senate “gang of six” working on a possible compromise deficit plan, suggested on Laura Ingraham’s radio show that “[t]here’s no plan to have a significant tax hike on anyone.”
Coburn appears to have confused the issue later in the interview, though:
The Oklahoma conservative suggested that the Gang of Six is examining a kind of tax reform similar to the type suggested by President Obama’s fiscal commission, in which marginal rates are lowered but many tax credits are eliminated from the code.
“Will some people pay increased taxes? I’m sure they will,” Coburn said of the resulting tax burden from such a plan.
This gets to the heart of the issue: Coburn doesn’t seem to think that reforming the tax code in such a way that revenues increase while rates decrease counts as a tax hike. Yet, according to Grover Norquist’s no-tax pledge (which Coburn has taken), that does constitute a tax hike.
Without further clarification, it looks like Coburn and the other two Republicans in the Gang of Six are still headed for a reckoning with the right.
UPDATE: And Grover Norquist “declares political war” on Coburn.
View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/21/coburn-downplays-possibility-o
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Ryan Ellis | 4.21.11 @ 11:58AM
Exactly right, Joe. There's only two groups of people in Washington who think you can raise net taxes and have it not be a net tax hike--the Gang of Six, and President Obama's White House.
Everyone else, from ATR to JCT to Paul Ryan, believes what the simple math tells them--a net tax hike is a net tax hike, even if it happens to contain a rate cut.
Anthony| 4.21.11 @ 12:09PM
Our problem is that the dems control the senate, the presidency, the judiciary and the news media. The American voters had the chance to turn the senate over to the repubs in Nov. but chose not to do it. What are our options? A significant amount of the American public supports the dems. I guess we can stand firm and refuse to negotiate, but why not get what we can now? Maybe America comes to its senses in 2012, or maybe the repubs nominate the wrong guy and we get more Obama, at least let's get something out of our majority in the one house of Congress.
CalMark| 4.21.11 @ 12:31PM
That's right! Let's keep surrendering until someday maybe we might possibly be able to do a little something.
Until then, keep that white flag waving!
Ryan Ellis | 4.21.11 @ 12:25PM
@Anthony, a stalemate would be better for the country than a massive tax hike. The tax hike they are talking about is probably around $500 billion per year. That would cripple the economy.
Then, win the Senate next year and do our best to beat Obama.
CalMark| 4.21.11 @ 12:31PM
Coburn has gone off the deep end.
Put a weak, egotistical Senator (but I repeat myself) on a big, important committee, and he becomes a liberal.
Tom Coburn is no longer a conservative. He's a Beltway Republican shill.
Ryan Ellis | 4.21.11 @ 3:53PM
Even we at ATR wouldn't go that far. But he has apparently abandoned his Pledge by all this tax hiking talk.
Brooke| 4.21.11 @ 4:01PM
I think CalMark's closer to the truth than you are. A lot of Conservatives are eyeing Sen. Coburn.
Ryan Ellis | 4.21.11 @ 5:35PM
Believe me, I'm no fan.
Brooke| 4.21.11 @ 6:52PM
I used to be--no more. Coburn's unctuous like Romney.
Andrew Keirns| 4.21.11 @ 1:05PM
Reckon with whom? Who exactly on the right can hold Coburn's feet to the fire?
Ryan Ellis | 4.21.11 @ 1:19PM
the 237 Pledge signers in the House and 41 in the Senate, and the conservatives who put those Pledge signers into office.
Brooke| 4.21.11 @ 3:59PM
The people who voted for Coburn. Obviously.
Brooke| 4.21.11 @ 2:38PM
I've been annoyed with Coburn since he defended Nanzi Pelousy last year. Tom's gone RINO and I hope he gets primaried by the Tea Party.
PattyMor| 4.21.11 @ 3:23PM
I knew when I saw Dickey Durban on the committee of six, we would be getting tax increases. If he thinks he can take away the housing deduction, he had better get ready for pitchforks! Any guess as to whether the Earned Income Credit is out?
Ryan Ellis | 4.21.11 @ 3:52PM
The Obama version of the tax hike trigger exempted all refundable credits, including the EITC. I would imagine that Durbin would insist on this here, as well.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.21.11 @ 3:29PM
The Ruling Class will steal you blind, most of them wealthy from bribes, while smiling and telling you that it's for your own good.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.21.11 @ 3:29PM
The Ruling Class will steal you blind, most of them wealthy from bribes, while smiling and telling you that it's for your own good.
Matt| 4.22.11 @ 2:59PM
It's Tom Coburn vs. Grover Norquist and the comments here are siding with Norquist?? Tom Coburn has forgotten more about integrity in his lifetime than the rest of the Senate knows put together. Where was Norquist every time spending went up while tax rates stayed the same for the last 20 years? He was off spouting his "starve the beast" idiocy. Where was Norquist when our corporate and personal income tax codes were being shot through with special interest exemptions and rent-seeking (by GOP and Democrats alike)? Now Norquist wants to defend these blatant handouts as the moral equivalent of genuine tax cuts? Coburn figured out what Norquist and his ilk still don't get: increased borrowing (and increased spending) now inevitably equals increased taxes at some point. The only way to shrink the cost of government is to balance it, THEN cut it. Coburn's been better on spending than just about anyone else in the Senate, yet he's going to be punished for facing reality and trying to clean up the mess his GOP colleagues and Grover Norquist gleefully helped to make.
Canon| 4.23.11 @ 1:55AM
Coburn's new-found need for the Left's approval is the problem--it's got nothing to do with Norquist.