Talk of GOP primaries follows 'fiscal cliff' vote
Source: Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa - Republicans in Congress who took the politically risky step of voting to raise taxes now find themselves trying to fend off potential primary challenges next year from angry conservatives.
These lawmakers wasted little time in attempting to deliver an explanation that would be acceptable to the tea party and the GOP's right flank, and, perhaps, insulate themselves from a re-election battle against a fellow Republican. They've started defending last week's vote as one that preserves tax cuts for most Americans, while also promising to fight for spending cuts in upcoming debates over raising the nation's borrowing limit.
"In the end, he ensured that over 99 percent of Kentuckians will not pay higher income taxes," Mitch McConnell's campaign wrote in an email message to Kentucky voters the day after the Senate Republican leader supported the measure.
It was the first time in two decades that a significant number of Republicans voted for a tax increase: 33 senators and 85 representatives, who broke with the House GOP majority to support the bill that averted the "fiscal cliff" but raised taxes on upper incomes.
Read more: http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/talk-of-gop-primaries-follows-fiscal-cliff-vote-1.4410170
The one thing this article does not mention is that a lot of the support for threatened primaries is from corporate backed astroturf groups like Freedom Works and Club for Growth. If the extreme right wing was not bankrolled by millions of dollars, these extremists would simply be unable to win any elections.
RickFromMN
(478 posts)I don't have to repeat what others have said, on other posts, regarding the consequences of gerrymandering.
flamin lib
(14,559 posts)If the teabaggers nominate more Wests, Welchs, Murdochs and Atkins a good Dem candidate might be able to defeat them.
DallasNE
(7,403 posts)Is the oxygen of these extreme right-wingers. Without that there would be no primary challenges because of the money advantage incumbents usually enjoy. The Koch brothers have long been staunch supporters of the John Birch Society and so are nearly all of those in the Tea Party. Bircher have been a thorn in the side of Republicans dating back to at least Barry Goldwater.
The Wizard
(12,552 posts)are the money behind this. Everyone should start suing them and their companies for any and every reason possible. They should be bankrupted by angry citizens united to restore a government of, by and for the people.
RBInMaine
(13,570 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)Previous law (2011) had tax rates uniformly higher or equal to those in the present law, which generally had the effect of keeping lower rates in place.