Freshman Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, who is from a Republican-majority but nonetheless marginal district in the vicinity of Albany, has been taking the standard House Republican line on the debt ceiling. The question seemed to be whether he would go along with a deal brokered by House Speaker John Boehner or lash himself to the mast of the Tea Party Titanic, but now it appears Boehner himself is going the refusenik route.
I support Gibson's anti-Obama positions in opposition to the Libyan war and Planned Parenthood -- and not primarily because they would save money, although they would. But Republican tax policy is pig-headedly regressive, and, as McCain presidential campaign chief economic adviser and former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin points out, they gotta raise the debt ceiling. If Gibson helps block that, he will damage the national interest and permanently tar himself as unelectable.
Just a clarification to a popular myth: NY-20 is NOT a Republican majority district; it's a GOP plurality. There are more Democrats and independents combined than Republicans, who comprise 41% of the district's registration (as per 2008 NYS BOE numbers).
In fact, Republicans do not constitute a majority in ANY of NY-20's counties (at least the part of said counties inside the district)... though they come very close in Essex.
Posted by: Brian | July 22, 2011 at 09:43 PM