If these ideas are given a fair chance in New Orleans and the gulf area, ... their popularity and success will create a momentum for expanding them elsewhere.
In the last two or three weeks, there has been an increasing restlessness among conservatives, mostly about the open-ended (financial) response to Katrina, ... There's a growing number of conservative voters coming to the conclusion that Republicans have lost their way.
One of the assumptions is that it becomes increasingly difficult to get things done in an election year, especially things where tough decisions have to be made.
I would be surprised if there's not time set aside to tell that story.
They'd (lawmakers) would like to get a lot of these things out of the way before the end of the year.
Bad things that were going to happen have not happened.
In the short run, you have to have higher taxes to pay for it. Or in the long run, you run up a larger debt and at some point, the debt becomes large enough that it requires tax increases to pay off the debt. No matter how you look at the trend lines, you can't grow your way out of it.
It's going to push some people who are at the margins of being able to afford it into the consumer category.
If this trend continues, it suggests a very different 2006. If Republicans enter the year on the working assumption that they're not going to pick up any meaningful support on the Democratic side on anything, they're going to have to figure out whether to lean toward the middle to get the bulk on board, or get into a Lord-of-the-Flies situation where they start tossing each other off the cliff.
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