When Mark Warner says, “tax reform”, watch your wallet

Reading Mark Warner’s comments about the federal budget, I had the strange sense of deja vu, and it was not pleasant.

Warner was given the chance to talke about the (unreleased but largely contoured) House Republican budget plan for FY12 and beyond, which will focus on serious entitlement reform. Those who know Warner only by his reputation as a budget hawk would be surprised. Those of us who know how what a joke that reputation is are not surprised (NRO – The Corner):

. . . Warner simply offered up some familiar, if unusually polite, demagoguery. “I don’t know how you get there without taking basically a meat axe to those programs who protect the most vulnerable in the country,” he said. “So I’ll give anybody the benefit of a doubt until I get a chance to look at the details, but I think the only way you’re going to really get there is if you put all of these things, including defense spending, including tax reform, as part of the overall package.” (Emphasis mine.)

Not one positive word. It used to be that even liberal Democrats like Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) would nominally praise Ryan for at least proposing a serious plan for debt reduction before lambasting it as a heartless and barbaric assault on America’s grandmothers. Those days are likely gone forever, but that doesn’t erase the fact that Ryan’s 2012 budget — regardless of one’s politics — will be the only serious attempt at meaningful deficit reduction since the Simpson-Bowles commission released their recommendations in December of last year. But Warner cannot bring himself to acknowledge this.

A senior Republican source tells NRO that Warner’s comments certainly do not favor the chances of a grand bipartisan agreement on deficit reduction, and is yet another sign that President Obama and senior Democrats are content to dodge and demagogue the issue straight through to Election Day 2012 . . .

How typical of Warner: “familiar, if unusually polite, demagoguery.”

To those of us in the Commonwealth, this is painfully familiar. In 2001, Warner billed himself as a moderate Democrat who would cut spending and – as he promised multiple times – would not raise taxes. Less than a year later he dramatically expanded Medicaid, then had the gumption to demand Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads increase their own taxes to raise the transportation dollars that were being sucked away. When the voters in those regions gave him the finger, he went for a $1.5 billion statewide tax increase – all in the name of “tax reform” to balance the budget. Meanwhile, spending ballooned.

Now, two years into his latest job, Warner is talking up “tax reform” again. Now, there aren’t any John Chichesters in the world to demand their own tax hikes (thank you, Teabrewers!), and I doubt John Boehner is as weak of Bill Howell was in 2004 (Howell since 2008 is another, and far better, matter).

Still, take no chances and watch your wallet!

Cross-posted to RWL

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About the author

D.J. McGuire

Former candidate for Board of Supervisors in Spotsylvania, current blogger, economics teacher, and long-rumored windbag. There are two causes closest to the heart: steering the country away from the social democratic nonsense that is sinking Europe, and convincing the rest of the "rightosphere" that the NBA really is a joy to watch.