The Week

Say, can Mike Dukakis still drive that tank?

At the same time as the White House continues to crack the heads of House Republicans who opposed the bipartisan tax package, the Democrats who supported the bill are revising the rules to make it partisan. One of the selling points for the final package was that the Administration’s budget office would decide whether any proposed bill was within the deficit-reduction requirements. But now the Democrats are aiming to pass a rule wresting that power away from the Administration and giving it to the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Tax Committee-rather like letting your ten-year-old decide what his allowance should be. “This is a gross violation of the agreement before the ink is even dry,” said Representative Bill Frenzel (R., Minn.), ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, in a letter to his GOP colleagues. “If this rule is adopted, no Republican can ever trust any agreement, however insignificant, made with Speaker Foley, Majority Leader Gephardt, or Chairman Panetta.”

Featured Tags

William F. Buckley Jr.

National Review

Say, can Mike Dukakis still drive that tank?

At the same time as the White House continues to crack the heads of House Republicans who opposed the bipartisan tax package, the Democrats who supported the bill are revising the rules to make it partisan. One of the selling points for the final package was that the Administration’s budget office would decide whether any proposed bill was within the deficit-reduction requirements. But now the Democrats are aiming to pass a rule wresting that power away from the Administration and giving it to the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Tax Committee-rather like letting your ten-year-old decide what his allowance should be. “This is a gross violation of the agreement before the ink is even dry,” said Representative Bill Frenzel (R., Minn.), ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, in a letter to his GOP colleagues. “If this rule is adopted, no Republican can ever trust any agreement, however insignificant, made with Speaker Foley, Majority Leader Gephardt, or Chairman Panetta.”