Norquist: Toomey is great
The day's daily politics headlines are atop the Early Returns homepage, but here's a couple tidbits in today's stories that you might have missed.
As Ms. Bachmann spoke, the stock market was still on the way up. Although she couldn't know that it would shortly head into another nosedive, the Republican portrayed the volatile economic climate as evidence of her anti-spending warnings.
"I've been leading the fight for the last two months against raising the debt ceiling," she said. "I knew that would hurt our economy. I knew it would hurt our credit rating. I fought against my own party because I thought it was the wrong thing to do. I thought it was the wrong move, and I was proved right last week."
Holding aloft a $20 bill supplied by an aide, she assailed the Federal Reserve Board's decisions in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Complaining of the Fed's successive massive rounds of bond purchases, the Minnesota congresswoman contended that the moves had cheated workers and the country as a whole, by making dollars cheaper relative to other currencies. Many economists, however, view that slide in the dollar as a boon to American business, making U.S. goods relatively cheaper than other countries'.
"This is worth 12 1/2 percent less than it was a couple of years ago," she said. "That means the money you get paid is worth less than it was a couple of years ago. The government put so much money into the money supply, ... making the money you earn worth even less."
From the main story Dan Malloy and I did on Pat Toomey's selection to the super-powerful debt super-committee:
All six panel Republicans in the past have signed onto the no-tax pledge championed by the conservative Americans for Tax Reform. That lobbying group's president, Grover Norquist, said Wednesday: "I think having Toomey on the committee is great. He's both a budget guy and a strong anti-tax leader."
Taxes will be at the fulcrum of the debate since Democrats, including Mr. Obama, have demanded that increased revenue be part of any long-term debt deal. Republicans are not poised to agree.
"None of the Republicans being nominated to the super-committee would vote for a tax increase," Mr. Norquist said. "[And] if for some reason they all got food poisoning and missed the meeting, and the Democrats voted out a tax increase, it would never pass through the House of Representatives."