According to an official, several people are still feared trapped in the debris
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Overreach is an overused word, but the messages voters sent last week, particularly in Ohio, were not lost on conservatives and Republicans. “The 2010 elections made it abundantly clear that people are gravely concerned about excessive spending and debt, and want to rein in size and scope of government,” says former Reagan adviser Sal Russo, cofounder and chief strategist of the Tea Party Express.
GOP strategist Rich Galen says Ohio Gov. John Kasich “way overreached” with his law gutting collective-bargaining rights for public employees, as did the anti-abortion activists who put a “personhood” amendment on the ballot in Mississippi. Ohio voters rejected the Kasich law last week, while Mississippi voters rejected the ballot measure to define a fetus as a person.
Looking ahead, three dates that will give us clues to the general election landscape:
November 23 is the deadline for the congressional “super-committee” to agree on a debt-reduction plan. Many are pessimistic about its ability to reach consensus on a bipartisan plan that raises enough tax revenue to satisfy the six Democrats on the panel and sufficiently curbs the growth of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to satisfy the six Republicans.
Yet there have been developments that reflect the gravity of the debt problem and the impatience of voters who want to see results. Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, a super-committee member who once was president of the vehemently antitax Club for Growth, proposed a plan that included $300 billion in new tax revenues. Never mind that Democrats immediately rejected the amount as paltry and elusive. Toomey is prepared to break the no-new-tax pledge he and practically every Republican in Congress signed. He’s among several senators and 40 House Republicans who have signalled a willingness to find new revenues — that is, to raise taxes.
Toomey and GOP Senator Tom Coburn both said over the weekend that getting a debt agreement without compromising on taxes is impossible. “If I were king, this is not the plan I’d put on the table. But if we both went into our respective corners and had no flexibility, then we wouldn’t get anything done,” Toomey said on Fox News Sunday. He set some conditions, saying that “we’re willing to generate a little more revenue” in the context of reforming the tax code. Still, once you open the door to increased taxes, you’re talking numbers rather than principles. That’s a much easier negotiation.
Both parties have good reasons to worry about the election. Republicans on the super-committee in particular are being squeezed by their party’s militant anti-tax wing and more moderate voters looking for action on jobs and the debt. Several recent polls show most voters think the GOP is trying to hurt President Obama by blocking his attempts to create jobs. Democrats are tied with or ahead of Republicans in several recent polls when voters are asked which party they want to control Congress, and Obama has moved back into a tie with a generic Republican presidential candidate. None of this means we are about to see the super-committee send up puffs of white smoke to announce a breakthrough. But the movement toward the middle suggests an agreement or further work on the debt next year is not out of the question.
January 3 is the date of the Iowa caucuses, when Republicans will vote for their favorite presidential prospect. The candidate perceived as most moderate and electable, Mitt Romney, is at or near the top of the polls in Iowa. After putting millions into the state in 2008 and losing the caucuses to Mike Huckabee, Romney has played it coy in Iowa and now must decide whether to go all in and try to win. As for the rest of the January contests, Romney has a consistent double-digit lead in New Hampshire; he’s a leading contender in South Carolina; and he’s well-positioned in Florida.
Romney has survived this long as a frontrunner despite handicaps that include creating the template for “Obamacare” in Massachusetts and once having backed gay rights, legal abortion, and cap-and-trade. And like Gingrich, who negotiated with Bill Clinton on balanced budgets and welfare reform, Romney worked closely with a Democratic legislature to get things done. Anything could happen during the nomination season, of course, but the GOP is seeming less and less like the party of Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, and Christine O’Donnell.
On January 13 Wisconsin organisers trying to recall Gov. Scott Walker to gather some 540,200 signatures. Recall fever seemed to ebb after a series of state legislative recall elections. Walker’s approval rating rose into the high 40s and former senator Russ Feingold, a potentially formidable opponent, said he probably wouldn’t run against Walker.
The Ohio victory is a psychological boost for Walker recall organisers and no doubt will become a financial one as well. Galen says labour can now go to its funders and tell them, based on the outcome in Ohio, that “if we have enough money, we can do this.” The Walker recall-petition drive kicked off November 15, and organisers say they are aiming for 750,000 signatures. If they get twice that many and Feingold changes his mind, we’ll have a solid sign that it’s not 2010 anymore.
© Newsweek
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