Republicans cut and run on US: "Some Republicans Take a Scorched-Hill Tack"

[Target_For_Exterm]

"WASHINGTON -- Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats to govern when they take power in Congress next month.

Already, the Republican leadership has moved to saddle the new Democratic majority with responsibility for resolving $463 billion in spending bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. And the departing chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Bill Thomas (R., Calif.), has been demanding that the Democrat-crafted 2008 budget absorb most of the $13 billion in costs incurred from a decision now to protect physician reimbursements under Medicare, the federal health-care program for the elderly and disabled.

The unstated goal is to disrupt the Democratic agenda and make it harder for the new majority to meet its promise to reinstitute "pay-as-you-go" budget rules, under which new costs or tax cuts must be offset to protect the deficit from growing.

"I think we're trying to get an accommodation," said Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) last evening. "You're digging a hole now and filling up with money from '08," he said of Mr. Thomas's demands. "He says he's trying to move away from that.""

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116537033474441872-E98_ty2LKTJimA6Xl79YKGamKmg_20070105.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Oh yeah - these guys are REAL patriotic. :sarcasm:

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Tax and Spend! Tax and Spend!

They're setting up for 2008 and Tax and Spend is all we're going to be hearing from now until November 2008. Already heard it from Judd Gregg on the floor of the Senate the first day after this year's election. He attacked Kent Conrad's Ag Bill Amendment with, "See! I told you so! Spend, spend, spend! This is exactly what you're going to be getting from the other side of the aisle!"

Assholes!

[ninkasi]

2. Typical of them

This is so typical of Republican behavior. I believe that since they are handing the responsibility over to us, we fulfill that responsibility by immediately rolling back the tax breaks for the very wealthy. Leave middle class taxes alone, but let the wealthy pay their share.