Sunday, December 23, 2012

Partial Praise for Katrina Vanden Heuvel


Katrina Vanden Heuvel is not my favorite "talking head" on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos.

Yet two points that she has made have gotten my attention and increased my measured respect for writers and commentators on the right.

This country must get our troops out of Afghanistan. The United States foreign policy of "preemptive strikes" and "nation-building" is a resounding failure, one that is bankrupting this country. Vanden Heuvel and George Will both agreed on this point, one which Beltway elites refuse to respond to or respect.

On cutting spending, Vanden Heuvel keeps on harping the "pay fair share" mantra. She needs to articulate who these "rich" people are. If she is talking about Big Businsess like General Electric or Big Labor like the AFL-CIO elites, then definitely they need to pay their taxes. If she is talking about movie stars or job creators, then her demands for "fair share" are inherently unfair.

On the Decemnber 23 edition of “This Week”, Norquist and Vanden Heuvel both esteemed the interests of the middle class, with the president of Americans for Tax Reform attacking the Obamacare taxes, and the editor of the Nation attacking Big Business subsidies. She also went after Big Military, which is the locus of a great deal of waste in this country.

On those principles, those two should be in Congress working out a comprehensive tax and spending reform, and for once this conservative can claim an affinity and respect for “The Nation” Editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel.

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