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3 Martini Lunch

Post Condemns Racist Ad, Terrorist Strikes NYC, GOP Delay Tax Bill

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the Washington Post, not only for condemning the Latino Victory Fund ad that depicts Republican voters in Virginia as racists that want to run over minority kids but also slamming Democratic nominee Ralph Northam - whom the Post has endorsed - for a weak response to the ad. They also grieve for the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attack in Manhattan and get frustrated as the media immediately tried to rule out Islamic terrorism and then insist it's not a time for politics once they find out it was related to radical Islam. And they groan as congressional Republicans are forced to postpone the release of their tax reform bill because of ongoing disagreements within the party.

Hosted by Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty

Discussion (3)

  • Barry Jones@BarryJones
    Two points on tax policy and tax cuts. Stop with the revenue neutral junk and cut the budget AND taxes. Go back to zero based budgeting and no more budget resolutions. Let us have a budget hearing for each Cabinet level part of the government where each Secretary has to create, submit and justify to the appropriate Congressional committee a budget for their Department. Stop with the "take last years budget and add 2, 3, 5, or 10% to it and resubmit nonsense. As for the deductableness of State and Local taxes, yes it is not good that people who might be ostensibly on "our" side might not get the kind of tax cut they are expecting or wanting, but why should they get services paid for by their state subsidized by tax payers in other States? That is a two edged sword. I resent the higher payments the residents of NY, CA, NJ, IL, MA and PA get for things like unemployment insurance than residents of my State get (No, the FUTA tax does NOT pay for all of the benefit). I know for a fact that UI recipient get payments that are a MULTIPLE of my State payments. Ditto for other State run programs that are semi funded by Federal programs (various welfare oriented programs, Medicaid and what not). Maybe it is time for the States to have realistic budgets based on realistic revenues, too. Novel thought, I know, but what the heck...
  • contrarian@Contrarian

    I take issue with Jim's characterization of ending the deductiblity of state taxes. Saying that it's punishment for people living in blue states is citing an argument against it, and if you're going to be fair, you ought to cite an argument for it as well. Mr. Jones has one:

    Barry Jones (View Comment):

    As for the deductableness of State and Local taxes, yes it is not good that people who might be ostensibly on “our” side might not get the kind of tax cut they are expecting or wanting, but why should they get services paid for by their state subsidized by tax payers in other States?

    Also, I don't doubt that there are some people on twitter who've suggested that the remedy for such people is to move. The real response should be to push back against your local government. The whole point, as far as I am concerned, is not to take away the deduction as punishment, but to restore missing incentives for people to involve themselves in their state's budgeting.