Word: jim
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gramm may have decided to retire not just because he's done everything he wanted to do in Washington, but also because he won't be able to do much more. With Sen. Jim Jeffords' defection last spring, Democrats now have a one-seat majority in the Senate. Republican leaders adamantly deny it, but GOP senators I talk to tell me that the feeling is running strong in their ranks that Democrats will control that chamber for a while. The place won't be fun for a lot of Republicans who liked being in control...
...reporters last week that a "fiscal straitjacket" is good for government. Maybe he should ask Mike Easley how it feels. Easley became Governor of North Carolina in January, dreaming of smaller class sizes and a prescription-drug benefit for seniors. These weren't wild fantasies; his predecessor, fellow Democrat Jim Hunt, doled out plums for eight years while the economy boomed--a pre-kindergarten program for low-income kids, big pay raises for teachers, $1.5 billion in tax cuts...
...Governors have followed Easley's lead of proposing tax increases. State legislatures have cut taxes a total of $36 billion nationwide since 1995; most aren't ready to admit the party's over. Virginia Republican Governor Jim Gilmore, who criticized Easley's tax increase, dealt with his state's $420 million shortfall by cutting pay raises for state workers and freezing construction projects at state universities. The Virginia legislature tried to block Gilmore's repeal of a state car tax so such deep cuts wouldn't be needed, but Gilmore prevailed. Now a new budget gap may force...
...other hand, however enthused congressional Republicans say they are about their fiscal straitjacket - "the budget is tight, and that is exactly where we want it to be and where we need it to be," says House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle - congressmen are congressmen, and swallowing bitter political pills in the name of fiscal discipline has never been either party?s strong suit...
...Republicans, on the other hand, hope their talking points are powerful enough to hold the House and take back the Senate, which the GOP lost to the Democrats last spring with the defection of Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords...