Word: bipartisanism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Newt Gingrich, the House Republican whip, is the street-fighting man of politics. Usually he skewers Democrats, but even the bipartisan budget deal fell victim to his verbal darts. Wowed by his technique, many ambitious young Republicans are musing, "I wish I could speak like Newt." To help them, a GOP committee called gopac has distributed a brochure filled with choice Gingrich buzz words for describing one's own campaign and the opponent...
...rooted in the anti-democratic conviction that neither political party is supposed to stand for anything. In the quest for what Richard Darman called a "no-fingerprints" budget deal, the Bush Administration and the congressional leadership of both parties carried this flight from democracy to self-destructive extremes. The bipartisan budget summit not only shut out the voters but almost all of Congress from the vital business of setting national priorities at a time of scarcity and economic fear...
...unusual to see liberals and conservatives poised to battle it out on the floor of the House. In contrast, the ill-fated bipartisan proposal was a themeless pudding of a budget. Its guiding philosophy was a cynical renunciation of the long-standing principles of both parties. Much of the criticism leveled against the congressional backbenchers who rebelled against the pact claimed they were motivated by partisan excess. But it can be argued that the authors of the plan were not partisan enough. The White House abandoned the traditional Republican hostility to funding ineffective domestic spending programs. The Democratic leadership surrendered...
...mutiny on the budget proves, the House is not a home for such bipartisan blandness. That can be a strength, not a weakness. Public skirmishing over the budget stands as much of a chance of achieving a workable compromise as the back-door accord that was rejected two weeks ago. And if Congress fails this time, the voters will know whom to blame at the polls...
...fear that higher excise taxes will cut further into states' incomes, with estimated losses in the larger states running to hundreds of millions of dollars. Some of these inequities could be fine-tuned out of the plan later, but the fact remains that, after weeks of heated negotiations, the bipartisan summiteers who put the deal together were unable to find another approach that was politically feasible. The onus is on those who criticize their work to show exactly how they would do a better job of reducing the deficit without resorting to the phony figures and rosy forecasts they...