This might not make Grover Norquist very happy, but it might signal that Republicans are finally getting serious about dealing with our nation’s debt.
Senator Saxby Chambliss this week became the latest Republican lawmaker to loosen his ties to Grover Norquist, the anti-tax lobbyist famous for getting elected officials to sign a “taxpayer protection pledge.”
The rebellion, albeit a modest one, comes as Republicans prepare to negotiate with Democrats and President Barack Obama on a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff – some $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts set to start jolting the economy at the beginning of 2013.
“I care more about this country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” Chambliss told Georgia television station WMAZ on Thursday. “If we do it his way, then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.”
This is the same Saxby Chambliss who ran a disgusting slime campaign against Max Cleland in 2002 in order to get elected to the U.S. Senate in the first place. I’m never going to forgive Chambliss for that.
Looks as if the Republicans in Congress are signing a different tune than they have the past 2 years. I don’t mind looking into small cuts to Social Security and Medicare, because Social Security is getting cut each year we do not have a cost of living increase for the recipients anyway. Medicare being cut is less of a big deal now that we have Obamacare. Obama better be getting a lot back in return from the Republicans before making any cuts to entitlements. I think a bone is going to get thrown in so that each side votes for the grand bargain.
“Republicans are finally getting serious about dealing with our nation’s debt” — what a joke! Were you trying to be intentionally funny? When will Democrats get serious about dealing with the debt? They haven’t been concerned with it as far as I have seen and the Obama trillion dollar deficits are there to prove it. If Democrats want to get serious now too, does that mean they too will compromise to allow serious spending cuts? Yeah, I didn’t think so.