Snowe Queen

From Investors Business Daily:

If Republicans want to maintain the support of their base, they'll need to stop looking like Democrats, very, very soon. I was part of the movement in the early 90's to push Pat Buchanan out of the party. Buchanan is not a conservative, he is a Theocrat who would impose his religious views on all of us through legislation, to me he is no better than Bin Laden. Unfortunately, in pushing out people like Buchanan, we gave liberals like Olympia Snowe, Arlen Spector and Lincoln Chaffe a free pass. This has gone on too long and needs to stop. They are killing the party and hurting the country. I guess this is why I registered as an Independent...


Posted 11/16/2005
Fiscal Policy: Sen. Olympia Snowe may have killed an extension of lower investment tax rates in committee. But the majority leader has pledged to restore them. It's about time these renegade Republicans got rolled.
Disney releases its film adaptation of C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" next month. In this beloved tale, four children magically enter Narnia, a peaceful land that would be paradise except for the fact it's been cursed with perpetual snow by the evil White Witch.

That's kind of the problem Republicans have had in Congress, especially the Senate. They've enjoyed majority control for a decade, but their repeated attempts to reduce high taxes, big government and burdensome regulations have been cursed by the handful of Olympia Snowes within their own party.

Republican leaders, however, may be learning how to deal with these renegades. The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday endorsed a package to cut taxes by $60 billion over five years. Snowe stepped in and pressured the committee to scrap an extension of the lower tax rates for investment income that were passed in 2003 but which expire in 2008.

According to Snowe, "We're now in a very different world than even just a few months ago when we voted on the budget."

Mostly what's different is that the president who led the fight for passing the tax cuts on investment is in political trouble, and the Snowes in Congress feel more comfortable casting their spells.

This time, however, Republican leaders are riding to the rescue. The finance panel's capitulation to Snowe "will not stop Congress from extending these provisions," Leader Bill Frist has promised.

"When the House and Senate meet to work out the difference between their two bills," Frist said, "I will insist that negotiators include an extension of the capital gains and dividend tax relief. I will not bring a conference report to the Senate floor that does not include this extension." Frist is confident of full Senate passage.

The extension is also strongly supported in the House of Representatives. Without it, the 15% top tax rate would rise to 20% after 2008 for capital gains, and to regular income tax rates in the case of dividends.

The U.S. economy in recent years has weathered a stock crash, a recession, a terrorist attack, a spike in oil prices, 12 interest-rate hikes and multiple major natural disasters. A big reason it's done so well in spite of all this is that President Bush and Congress put more money into the pockets of those who invest.

As a result, GDP growth has topped 3% for 10 straight quarters, businesses have created more than 4 million jobs, productivity is soaring and unemployment has fallen to just 5% — well below the average rates of the '70s, '80s and '90s.

For this to continue, businesses and investors must be assured that congressional leaders will thwart the wicked wiles of Snowe queens every chance they get.