McConnell Seated With Carter for Inaugural Lunch

Someone on the Inaugural Committee, or perhaps in the White House, figured out a way to torture Mitch McConnell. He and Secretary Chao will be seated with former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalyn at the lunch in  the Capitol following the ceremonial swearing-in.

This has to be excruciating for McConnell. The whole day will be a constant reminder that our team lost.  Sitting with the second worst president in the nations's history just makes it worse.

McConnell  did not overlap with Carter.  So there isn't any bad blood, just acute ideological differences.

Plainly, they can't talk politics. Religion  and sex would not work;  we don't want Carter to recall when he lusted in his heart.

Here's a topic.  McConnell can ask Carter if he has been attacked by any swimming rabbits lately!

Boehner Reelected; Massie Votes Against

Rep. John Boehner has just been reelected House Majority Leader, but not unanimously.  Nine Republicans did not vote for him, including newly-sworn in Rep. Thomas Massie from Kentucky's 4th Congressional District.  Massie voted for Rep. Justin Amish  (R-MI).

The lack of unanimity for Boehner is fall-out for the Fiscal Cliff deal and the fact that it raised taxes on the so-called rich but failed to achieve any spending cuts at present.

McConnell on the Deal and What's Next

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has an op-ed on Yahoo! News regarding the deal he negotiated to prevent taxes going up on all Americans. Note his choice of New Media for its publication; no point in writing free copy for the opposition media.

McConnell makes clear that there will be no further discussion regarding taxes.  That issue is off the table.  He will focus, with his famed discipline and relentlessness, on spending.

The link to his op-ed is not working at the moment, so I have cut and pasted it in its entirety:

The first day of a new Congress always represents a fresh start. This year, it also presents a perfect opportunity to tackle the single-greatest challenge facing our nation: reining in the out-of-control federal spending that threatens to permanently alter our economy and dim the prospects and opportunities of future generations of Americans.

Earlier this week, I helped negotiate an imperfect solution aimed at avoiding the so-called “fiscal cliff.” If I had my way taxes would not have gone up on anyone, but the unavoidable fact was this if we had sat back and done nothing taxes would have gone up dramatically on every single American, and I simply couldn’t allow that to happen.

By acting, we’ve shielded more than 99% of taxpayers from a massive tax hike that President Obama was all-too willing to impose. American families and small businesses that would have seen painfully smaller paychecks and profits this month have been spared. Retirement accounts for seniors won’t be whittled down by a dramatic increase in taxes on investment income. And many who’ve spent a lifetime paying taxes on income and savings won’t be slammed with a dramatically higher tax on estates.

Was it a great deal? No. As I said, taxes shouldn’t be going up at all. Just as importantly, the transcendent issue of our time, the spiraling debt, remains completely unaddressed. Yet now that the President has gotten his long-sought tax hike on the “rich,” we can finally turn squarely toward the real problem, which is spending.

Predictably, the President is already claiming that his tax hike on the “rich” isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over. Now the conversation turns to cutting spending on the government programs that are the real source of the nation’s fiscal imbalance. And the upcoming debate on the debt limit is the perfect time to have that discussion.

We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt.

The only way to achieve the balance the President claims to want is by cutting spending. As he himself has admitted, no amount of tax hikes or revenue could possibly keep up with the amount of money Washington is projected to spend in the coming years. At some point, high taxes become such a drag on the economy that the revenue stalls.

While most Washington Democrats may want to deny it, the truth is, the only thing we can do to solve the nation’s fiscal problem is to tackle government spending head on — and particularly, spending on health care programs, which appear to take off like a fighter jet on every chart available that details current trends in federal spending.

The President may not want to have a fight about government spending over the next few months, but it’s the fight he is going to have, because it’s a debate the country needs. For the sake of our future, the President must show up to this debate early and convince his party to do something that neither he nor they have been willing to do until now. Over the next two months they need to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution to the spending problem we have now achieved on revenue — before the 11th hour.

When it comes to spending, the time has come to rise above the special interest groups that dominate the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in Washington and act, without drama or delay. The President likes to say that most Americans support tax hikes on the rich. What he conveniently leaves out is that even more Americans support cuts. That’s the debate the American people really want. It’s a debate Republicans are ready to have. And it’s the debate that starts today, whether the President wants it or not.

McConnell Was Brilliant to Hire Jesse Benton

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's decision to hire Jesse Benton as his campaign manager already is paying off. Benton's Tea Party bona fides could not be stronger, as a former campaign manager of the Pauls.

To those Tea Party patriots who are displeased with McConnell's role in negotiating the compromise to the Fiscal Cliff, Benton reassures.  For some, the deal McConnell struck looks suspect because it does raise taxes on couples above $450k without really generating much revenue -- and without immediate cuts.

This tax increase, indeed, any tax increase, exposes McConnell on his right flank.  That's why Benton's explanation of the strategy behind the deal is so important, particularly with respect the bifurcated approach to making tax rates permanent so that this issue will be off the table when the negotiating turns to the debt limit:

I have had the honor of working for some leaders I could really be proud to stand with. And let me tell you, I have never been more proud of a boss than I am of Senator McConnell right now. Let me tell you why. When Barack Obama won re-election in November, Obama decided he was willing to force the country off the fiscal cliff to push through his agenda.  The result would be the largest tax increase in American history. Unless Congress took action, everyone’s taxes were going up January 1st, big time. Middle class families across Kentucky and our country would have seen their first paychecks on January 15th literally hundreds of dollars smaller due to new federal income tax withholding. I don’t know about you, but as a middle class working man raising a young family, I can ill afford Barack Obama reaching deeper into my pockets, and I’ll bet just about every Kentuckian feels the same way. In the end, there is only one reason why Kentucky taxpayers avoided these tax hikes: Senator Mitch McConnell. For two months, well-intentioned allies in the fight for smaller government attempted to thwart President Obama’s plan. But it wasn’t until Leader McConnell took the reins that real progress was made. He showed the strong, disciplined and savvy leadership that only he can provide. And, in the end, he ensured that over 99% percent of Kentuckians will not pay higher income taxes. What’s also important to know is that he has put us on strong footing in the fight to cut spending. You see, the fiscal cliff was a two-part problem, one of both taxes and spending. Leader McConnell wisely separated the two to put us on stronger footing in both. First he fought off President Obama’s tax hikes for as many Kentuckians as he could. Now comes part two. In order to keep spending, Congress must raise the federal debt limit in two months. Through his leadership, Senator McConnell has not only ensured that your taxes will not go up, he has taken the threat of income tax hikes totally off table for debt limit negotiations. Now, President Obama and his allies will not be able to threaten every American with higher taxes as we fight for spending restraint and entitlement reform. And let me tell you, I know Senator McConnell will be as rock solid and resolute in that fight as he was in protecting our paychecks. Senator McConnell is a special leader and we can all be proud of what he just did for us. I hope you will stand with him now and in the coming months. If you are able, please help with a contribution of $50, $100, $250 or even $500 today. If we come together and stand with Leader McConnell, we can get this country back on track. So, make sure to forward this email to your friends and neighbors to let them know that Mitch McConnell just saved their paychecks. Help us spread the word Facebook and Twitter. And please, if you can, help us with your generous contribution right away.       Help make a difference Join the fight for real conservative change in Washington!