Bev Blows It Up
2009-07-24 - by
What do you do when your poll ratings are as bad as any governor’s in the country, somewhere down in Bush-Cheney territory? When you’ve been outfought and outfoxed by June Atkinson, for Pete’s sake? And when fellow Democrats are calling you a lame duck in your first year?
Well, you could find something more unpopular than you are – and attack it.
That’s what Bev Perdue did yesterday when she administered a spanking to the dog of a tax package the legislative Democrats had come up with.
It was a good move for her, and she did the party a favor.
Now Senate Democrats can make another run at the only tax package – so far as I can tell, without the benefit of any polling to back me up – that has a chance of not dragging Democrats down to minority status next year.
Perdue may have added several weeks to the legislative session, not to mention continued budget confusion. But we’re talking political survival here. Not just for the next two years, but for the next 10, because we’re coming up on redistricting.
The plan of raising sales taxes (on everybody) and income taxes (on everybody) was a Rube Goldberg invention of epic proportions.
I won’t argue that taxing a wide range of services is a political sweet potato. But the Senate plan gives Democrats three good answers when they get attacked next year:
-
We cut income taxes to help everybody
-
We cut corporate taxes to help the economy
-
We cut sales tax rates to help everybody.
Of course, Perdue’s poll ratings in the House caucus now are probably lower than her 30 percent statewide. But that’s OK. She’s not running for Speaker. She – and the Democrats – are running for survival.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Democrats
Bev Blows It Up
2009-07-24/
What do you do when your poll ratings are as bad as any governor’s in the country, somewhere down in Bush-Cheney territory? When you’ve been outfought and outfoxed by June Atkinson, for Pete’s sake? And when fellow Democrats are calling you a lame duck in your first year?
Well, you could find something more unpopular than you are – and attack it.
That’s what Bev Perdue did yesterday when she administered a spanking to the dog of a tax package the legislative Democrats had come up with.
It was a good move for her, and she did the party a favor.
Now Senate Democrats can make another run at the only tax package – so far as I can tell, without the benefit of any polling to back me up – that has a chance of not dragging Democrats down to minority status next year.
Perdue may have added several weeks to the legislative session, not to mention continued budget confusion. But we’re talking political survival here. Not just for the next two years, but for the next 10, because we’re coming up on redistricting.
The plan of raising sales taxes (on everybody) and income taxes (on everybody) was a Rube Goldberg invention of epic proportions.
I won’t argue that taxing a wide range of services is a political sweet potato. But the Senate plan gives Democrats three good answers when they get attacked next year:
-
We cut income taxes to help everybody
-
We cut corporate taxes to help the economy
-
We cut sales tax rates to help everybody.
Of course, Perdue’s poll ratings in the House caucus now are probably lower than her 30 percent statewide. But that’s OK. She’s not running for Speaker. She – and the Democrats – are running for survival.
Posted in General, North Carolina - Democrats