Erick Erickson's Blog, page 15

Jamie’s Recovery

Many of you know Haystack, a long time contributor here at RedState. A while back he moved up to New England to be closer to family. His son Jamie was in a horrendous car accident recently and needs some extra financial help at this time of year. Many of us on the front page have contributed. RedState readers have been so generous in the past | Read More »

Why John Boehner Must Not Fold on Tax Rate Increases

Often things get lost in the daily grind of politics. The fact that the GOP is willing to raise taxes gets lost by the media because the media wants the GOP to raise rates. This Politico story makes very clear John Boehner must not raise rates. Better to go off the cliff than raise rates. In a meeting with leadership staff, [Rob] Nabors reiterated the | Read More »

Two Roads Diverged: Jim DeMint Leaves U.S. Senate for Heritage Foundation Presidency

I got the call before the news went out. Jim DeMint, the standard bearer of the conservative movement in America and conservative king maker, is leaving the United States Senate. He will succeed Ed Feulner as President of the Heritage Foundation. While my initial reaction was one of sadness that we are losing the clearest voice in the Senate for conservatives, the upside on Jim | Read More »

Filling in for Neal Boortz Today

I’m in for Talkmaster Neal Boortz today. You probably will want to tune in for this show. There’s a lot going on today with the fiscal cliff and other news. The show runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon. You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream and call in at 1-877-310-2100.

Reasonableness

The unreasonable Republicans in the House of Representatives are willing to raise taxes by $800 billion. Anti-tax Republicans will raise taxes. I’m not happy about it, but that is what John Boehner and Mitch McConnell seem to be offering. They want to raise that money by limiting deductions instead of raising rates. They do not want to raise rates because that will impact many small | Read More »

John Boehner on Independent Thinking and Retribution

John Boehner is making clear to Republican House members that the four conservatives removed from committees were removed because their votes defied House leaders. There was a time when John Boehner thought otherwise and valued independence from House members. From Meet the Press on January 5, 1997, over the dissatisfaction with Newt Gingrich: MR. RUSSERT: And with us now the Democratic whip, David Bonior of | Read More »

Steve Scalise Fails the First Test for Conservatives

Several weeks ago, Congressman Steve Scalise (LA) was elected chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Many of us felt a deep-rooted disquiet that Scalise would be too closely aligned with leadership. We feared he wouldn’t properly defend conservatives and their policies. Well, his response to the recent leadership purge of conservatives from congressional committees has validated our fears. The fact that he was at the | Read More »

Conservatives Actually Suck at This

John Boehner can do whatever the heck he wants to. The GOP could be making the argument that the White House has offered nothing on spending and the American people want spending cuts as much as they are okay with tax increases, but instead John Boehner will publicly negotiate with himself. And he can. He can throw conservatives off fiscal committees without consequence. Conservatives can | Read More »

Even an Ugly Cat Knows This

When you come to RedState, you aren’t charged. The Morning Briefing is free. You want a RedState account? You got one. You want to comment? Okay. We’re free. Like listening to the radio, you don’t have to pay. We make our money off of ads. It’s simple. But you guys complain. Some of the ads are annoying. Okay — some of the ads are damn | Read More »

I am Thankful for John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy

Not quite two weeks removed from Thanksgiving, it is worth giving thanks to John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Kevin McCarthy. I really am thankful for them. Yesterday the three of them purged fiscal conservatives from committees as punishment for being authentically fiscal conservatives. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina was put on the Financial Services Committee to show fiscal conservatism had nothing to do with removing | Read More »