Welcome to your Friday open thread. Everytime Friday rolls around I get that stupid Rebecca Black song in my head. I know, it’s my own fault, but still.
Knock me over with a feather – the National Review Online acknowledges an inconvenient truth for Republicans:
Among sentences I do not like to write: Andrew Leonard is mostly right about this one. Tax cuts do not generally increase revenue, and Republicans should stop saying otherwise.
…
Boehner’s statement, like Walsh’s, depends on how much implicit causality you read into it. That is not a trivial distinction: Low tax rates really can and do contribute to a growing economy, which can and does contribute to growing tax revenue. What is not true is that income-tax rate cuts pay $1.30 on the dollar, and that revenue has risen mostly because of (rather than despite) tax cuts — and Republicans should stop claiming otherwise.
So, now that the NRO is contradicting St. Reagan, will the Republicans follow? My guess is that Mr. Williamson will be ignored.
Texas Governor Rick Perry doesn’t want to be seen doing nothing while his state suffers. Perhaps that’s why he’s going to these desperate measures to relieve the drought:
Texas is in the grip of historic wildfires that have destroyed nearly 1.8 million acres of forest and grassland in the state as well as 400 homes. The almost 8,000 fires so far this year are unprecedented, which last weekend prompted Gov. Rick Perry to call upon the national government for assistance. Now Perry is calling upon the Man Upstairs for help.
Perry issued a proclamation on Thursday declaring the next 72 hours the “Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas,” asking residents to appeal to whatever higher power they prefer for help. It states:
WHEREAS, throughout our history, both as a state and as individuals, Texans have been strengthened, assured and lifted up through prayer; it seems right and fitting that the people of Texas should join together in prayer to humbly seek an end to this devastating drought and these dangerous wildfires;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life.
If it doesn’t rain does that mean God has abandoned Texas?