Right Turn

Jennifer Rubin: Back to the future: Dump the manufacturing tax breaks

Jennifer Rubin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:45:00 EST

Libertarian economist Veronique de Rugy, like many others in her profession, has stepped forward to explain why a special tax break for manufacturing is a very bad idea. She runs through a list of reasons, including this:

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Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:45:00 EST

Jennifer Rubin: Morning Bits

Jennifer Rubin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:45:00 EST

James Capretta on the momentum for a premium support plan: “When The New York Times and . . . [Rep. Paul] Ryan are calling for essentially the same type of reform, political momentum is clearly building for the change. This is very good news for those who are counting on Medicare to be there for them in the coming years and decades.”

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Jennifer Rubin: Arizona GOP debate: Romney brings the heat

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:42:20 EST

The last four Republican presidential candidates in the last debate before the Michigan, Arizona and Super Sunday contests went at it in Mesa, Arizona. It was, to be blunt, a wipeout. Mitt Romney brought the heat and the oppo research and flattened Rick Santorum, getting the former Pennsylvania senator hot and defensive. It was also a good night for Newt Gingrich, who returned to his professorial role. And Ron Paul, for once, was a model of common sense, at least when it came to the federal government and contraception.

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Jennifer Rubin: Ten things candidates shouldn’t do tonight

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST

1. Blame the media. They’ve done that. It’s old. It didn’t ultimately help Newt Gingrich. It sounds like whining.

2. Ask anyone else to get out of the race. That is the last way to get someone out. Besides, unpopular candidates soon become irrelevant.

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Jennifer Rubin: Not only the rates matter

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:20:00 EST

One way to look at how “conservative” a tax plan is to consider the overall tax burden. President Obama’s tax plan, for example, raises corporate taxes $250 billion. Another is to consider the degree to which the government tries to control private sector decision-making and investment through the tax code.

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Jennifer Rubin: Santorum scares off women voters

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST

Right Turn spotted this trend some ago: Rick Santorum has a problem with women voters. What started as a gap has now become a gender gulf:

A gender gap for Rick Santorum has surfaced in the most recent set of polls released before next week’s primaries, with women in Arizona supporting Mitt Romney over Mr. Santorum by nearly 2 to 1.

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Jennifer Rubin: Romney’s tax plan: Not Obama, not Santorum, maybe doable

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:39:00 EST

Mitt Romney has rolled out the remainder of his tax plan that he previewed in part in September when he presented his jobs plan. A conservative tax policy wonk on Capitol Hill told me it is “in line with remarkable policy consensus built among conservatives over past couple of years.”

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Jennifer Rubin: Obama’s terrible tax plan

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:52:25 EST

President Obama unveiled his corporate tax hike today, under the guise of tax “reform.” But in fact he complicates the code with a new Rick Santorum-like break for manufacturing companies. (Santorum’s probably none too pleased to see that Obama, the leader in picking winners and losers, has come up with a plan that in one major respect is just like his.) Moreover, it is astonishing, quite frankly, that in the worst economy since the Great Depression Obama would place greater burdens on investors, employers and employees (corporate taxes are pass-through taxes, after all) while making it harder for American companies to succeed overseas.

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Jennifer Rubin: Santorum, Romney and religious judgments

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST

Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have an interesting history when it comes to abortion and the Catholic Church. Surprisingly, they share a common path on the former but diverged sharply when it came to the church’s egregious record on child molestation by priests.

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Jennifer Rubin: Santorum’s less than consistent record in D.C.

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST

Rick Santorum has made much of Mitt Romney’s deviations from conservative orthodoxy. He’s shown little sympathy for the argument that those from blue states sometimes must bend and collaborate with Democrats if they hope to get anything done.

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Jennifer Rubin: Morning Bits

Jennifer Rubin — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:45:00 EST

This is right up there with demon sheep.

This race is going down into the anti-Semitic sewer. “A prominent Arab supporter of New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell invoked the ‘Israel firster’ specter over the weekend when he accused the state’s Jewish voters of being more loyal to Israel than America. Aref Assaf, president of the New Jersey-based American Arab Forum, opined Sunday evening in the New Jersey Star-Ledger about a Democratic primary that the state’s pro-Israel community is closely watching. The race pits Rep. Steve Rothman, a veteran pro-Israel stalwart, against Bill Pascrell, a well-liked Democrat who boasts a solid voting base.”

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Jennifer Rubin: Why social conservatives shouldn’t rush to defend Santorum

Jennifer Rubin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:30:23 EST

This was entirely predictable: As soon as the media started covering Rick Santorum’s past and present statements, which now even talk show host enemy of the MSM and liberal elites, Rush Limbaugh finds unusual, Santorum and his aides begin to whine. The press is spending too much time on this. The media is out to destroy him. But why complain about direct quotations and video of him expressing his heartfelt views?

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Jennifer Rubin: The media may have gotten the GOP race wrong, again

Jennifer Rubin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:05:00 EST

What if Mitt Romney wins Michigan and Arizona? Well, for one thing, 90 percent of what was written and spoken by the punditocracy since Rick Santorum’s wins in the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and the Missouri beauty contest will be proven wrong. In fact, more than Santorum himself, who would live to fight another day, the media horde, including (especially?) the right-wing media, will be shown to be out of touch, if not out to lunch.

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Jennifer Rubin: GOP brushes Obama’s bipartisan happy talk

Jennifer Rubin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:36:00 EST

Republicans didn’t bother to wait to hear President Obama call for bipartisan cooperation at the payroll tax extension signing. They have heard it before and consider it entirely disingenuous. The Associated Press reports:

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Jennifer Rubin: It’s not conservative, It’s reactionary

Jennifer Rubin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:40:00 EST

A number of social conservatives, sensing that Rick Santorum has hit a trip wire, are complaining that he’s being skewered for being a social conservative. That’s demonstrably wrong. The nonstop flaps (some of which concern past episodes that now have come to light) over the last couple of weeks have nothing to do with Santorum’s pro-life views or even his opposition to gay marriage. They have to do with his desire to uproot decades-old trends (e.g. women in the workplace, women in combat, use of contraception) and to use religious terminology and judgments to cast aspersions on his opponents (e.g. “phony theology,” the devil has infiltrated American institutions). In short, Santorum on social issues is not a conservative but a reactionary, seeking to obliterate the national consensus on a range of issues beyond gay marriage and abortion.

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Jennifer Rubin: Path to the nomination: The Arizona debate

Jennifer Rubin — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST

Tomorrow’s debate in Mesa, Ariz., is a critical opportunity for Rick Santorum to demonstrate he’s not going to launch a futile quest to repeal the last 50 years of social history, and for Mitt Romney to demonstrate he is the most electable conservative in the race.

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Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST