Connolly v. Connolly on Tax Cuts

It has come to the attention of Battle ’10 that Rep. Gerry Connolly (D., VA-11) has been boasting on the campaign trail about how National Review called him a “tax-cutting Democrat” here. Connolly was an early Democratic proponent of extending the Bush tax cuts for all, though he was not among the 31 House Democrats who recently sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging this course of action.

To be clear, Rep. Connolly, voting yes on bills like health-care reform, cap-and-trade, and financial reform all but disqualifies one as a tax-cutter. Having the political sense to support a measure that demography would suggest is imperative to your chances of being reelected — favoring tax cuts for the wealthy, for example, when you represent the wealthiest congressional district in the country — is certainly no cause for self-congratulation.

If Connolly is reelected, his opinion could easily change depending on which version of himself shows up to Capitol Hill. For example, watch Rep. Connolly debate candidate Connolly on the Bush tax cuts:

The promise of tax cuts, any kind of tax cuts, especially those skewed toward the upper income, producing unparalleled prosperity simply did not materialize, and I think we have to be a lot more careful about that moving forward.

I believe that given the fragility of the economic recovery – we’re only growing at 1.6 percent right now – and think that this is just the wrong time to be talking about tax increases for any group of tax-payers.