The Other McCain

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Renee Ellmers vs. Tim Geithner

Posted on | June 24, 2011 | 9 Comments

Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina was one of the Tea Party’s favorite candidates from last year’s mid-term campaign:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has his own issues with paying taxes, explained to Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) why taxes must be raised on small businesses to keep the federal government from shrinking. So what if spending went up by about a trillion bucks a year since President Obama took office.

When Ellmers finally told Geithner that “the point is we need jobs,” he responded that the administration felt it had “no alternative” but to raise taxes on small businesses because otherwise “you have to shrink the overall size of government programs” — including federal education spending.
“We’re not doing it because we want to do it, we’re doing it because we see no alternative to a balanced approach to reduce our fiscal deficits,” said Geithner.

“Balanced approach” has become a talking point for Democrats, obviously having been focus-grouped as a politically acceptable synonym for higher taxes:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi isn’t impressed with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s decision to suddenly bail on the White House deficit talks this morning, citing his disagreement with Democrats’ positions.
“Yes, we do want to remove tax subsidies for big oil, we want to remove tax breaks for corporations that send jobs overseas, that list goes on,” she told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday. “I don’t know that’s a reason to walk away from the table when we’re trying to find a balanced approach.”

Notice that Pelosi isn’t engaged in a serious policy discussion, but is merely recycling DCCC campaign rhetoric about “tax breaks for corporations that send jobs overseas.” It didn’t work in 2010, but Democrats are going to keep repeating it — and reporters will keep quoting it — until people start believing it.

Category: Budget, Renee Ellmers, Taxes, Timothy Geithner

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