Neo-Con Priorities

The NEW "G"reed "O"ver "P"eople Party Priorities:

M E M O R A N D U M
From: Grover G. Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
To: Members of the United States Senate
Date: 09/02/05
Re: Death Tax Repeal/Katrina
    In light of this week’s tragic hurricane in Louisiana, some politicians have suggested that tax cuts in general and death tax repeal specifically should not move forward. This is a similar argument which was made following the Iraq War and the 2003 tax cut. That analysis turned out to be very wrong. In March 2003, the United States Senate voted on a number of amendments to reduce the budget window of President Bush’s Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act. Opponents’ efforts to cut the size of the tax cut package were narrowly defeated the week before. But with the campaign in Iraq entering its third week and fresh cost estimates of more than $70 billion released Monday morning, Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) proposed an amendment to the budget to redirect $396 billion of the tax cut into a “reserve fund” to strengthen Social Security. The measure narrowly passed and the President’s tax cut was reduced by more than half.
    In retrospect, this “half a tax cut” generated an additional $238 billion of economic growth over two years than was forecasted by the Congressional Budget Office four months after the tax cut was signed into law. To put this in perspective, these higher levels of economic growth translated into an additional $1,960 per American household. At the same time, $4 trillion of new shareholder wealth has been created and 4 million new jobs have been added to the American workforce. The result is higher than expected tax revenues which are $112 billion above the Congressional Budget Office August 2003 baseline.
    Now imagine how much more growth, investment, jobs, and wealth would have been created if the Senate passed the entire package put forth by President Bush. The 2003 tax cut is instructive to the recent tragic events. Opponents of permanent repeal of the Death Tax are attempting to exploit this tragedy to put off a vote. Proof that they are exploiting this tragedy is that they were never for repeal of the Death Tax in the first place. They were against this proposal six years ago, five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, and two weeks ago.
    By stalling the vote they believe that the issue will not fit in the calendar on a later date. The 2003 tax cut lifted economic growth far beyond what most people expected. We know repeal of the Death Tax will also have a similar effect. And higher levels of economic growth is exactly what the residents of the Gulf Region need at this time to start the rebuilding process for their neighborhoods and more importantly for their lives.
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"We have two competing world views in American politics. The first says that government cannot help people. That government must be as small as possible, and exists only to provide security from external enemies. The other says that government can be a force for good and can help make people's lives better.
This week, we are seeing the effects of the lack of government. The American people are seeing what happens when the GOP worldview is dominant. We've talked about the two disasters -- the hurricane itself, which was unavoidable, and the response to the hurricane and lack of leadership, which was.
"We are seeing a third disaster -- the conservative world view itself, crashing and burning as reality meets ideology. Where government programs are slashed in the name of Norquist's drownable government, only to see an entire major city wiped off the face of the map as a result."
-Kos
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    And this is why these "globalists" are the most dangerous men and women the world has ever known. Individually, they are scary. Together, and in power, they are disastrous.
-Noah Greenberg, forwarded by Robert Scardapane

The economy is in the toilet. The war in Iraq is escalating and over 1,400 American troops have lost their lives. 84.000 new students won't get their Pell Grants.

The first order of business for the Republican majority in the House of Representative?

THEY WANT TO MAKE SURE TOM DELAY STAYS THE MAJORITY LEADER... NO MATTER WHAT.

That's right. The person that brought you the redistricting of the US Congressional seats in Texas is the same person that allegedly laundered Federal money through the Texas Republican Party. Tom Delay. Three of his close associates have been indicted in the money laundering scam. DeLay’s daughter was a paid consultant to two fund-raising committees that pumped money into Texas races.

After Tom Delay whined that the Democrats were playing the "politics of personal destruction", the House Republicans made the first order of business a rule change that would allow an indicted majority leader to keep his position.

You just have to love the way the Republican majority look out for themselves. First it was Senator and doctor Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader from Tennessee making sure he and his staff all had their flu vaccines before more worthy Americans; before sick Americans. Now its the house Republicans moving the rule change to protect Tom Delay to the head of the line. Forget No Child Left Behind; Forget the 9/11 reforms; Forget reforming the CIA.

At least the Republican leadership have their priorities in order.