Jim DeMint's Nation-Wrecking Fantasy

NRO has a report on the Republican members of Congress willing to force default in order to get a Senate vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment. In the Senate, DeMint is also counting noses, hoping to stir an eleventh-hour movement. Conservative voters, he says, will lose faith in the …

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Written by David Frum on Thursday July 21, 2011

Just Lift the Debt Ceiling!

Larry Kudlow and The New Republic like the Gang of Six plan. Keith Hennessey does not .  Obviously some people here are kidding themselves. And isn't that just inevitable when plans are being cobbled together by weary legislators working long hours in a summer heatwave? It's only asking …

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Written by David Frum on Thursday July 21, 2011

Coburn Pulls the Plug on Senate Deficit Deal

The departure of Sen. Tom Coburn from the Gang of Six talks raises the odds that a significant fiscal deal won't be reached this year. As he looked down the dugout at his inept Mets, Manager Casey Stengel famously asked, “Can’t anybody around here play baseball?”  The American people have a …

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Written by Steve Bell on Wednesday May 18, 2011

Debt Talks Stall Before They Even Start

Far from clarifying the fiscal debate, Congress has returned after the two-week Easter Recess to find themselves no closer to a debt deal. The death of Osama bin Laden dominates media, as it should. Yet, in the shadow of that dramatic story lies the continuing federal fiscal tar pit. Events …

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Written by Steve Bell on Wednesday May 4, 2011

How Norquist's Pledge Blocks Real Deficit Cuts

Economically, Grover Norquist's rule on what constitutes a "tax increase" makes little sense. And politically, it's making deficit reduction much more difficult. Eli Lehrer has an incisive piece on this page about Tom Coburn's "Gang of Six" tax proposals. I believe however that the proposals …

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Written by David Frum on Monday April 25, 2011

Coburn’s Reforms: Brave but Insufficient

Tom Coburn and his colleagues are showing a good deal of courage by putting taxes on the table. But the handful of specifics they’ve offered so far aren’t very promising. Tom Coburn, hardly a moderate or a shrinking violet by any measure, has effectively “ unsigned ” Grover Norquist’s pledge …

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Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday April 25, 2011