Bruce Bartlett writes in the NYT Op-Ed that the right-wing has no need to panic about the upcoming Democratic take-over of Congress:

No Spoils for the Victors – New York Times

With liberals like New York’s Charlie Rangel in line to head important House committees like the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, some investors are starting to worry about tax increases on the rich and business bashing-legislation. Needless to say, Republicans are doing what they can to stoke such fears.

As a Republican, I have a message for those fearful of Democratic control: don’t worry. Nothing dreadful is going to happen. Liberals have much less to gain than they believe.

Business-bashing legislation? I wonder what that would look like? The “Exxon is Mean Act of 2007″? Bruce has more goodies to offer in his analysis:

In 1994, after Republicans took control of Congress, my fellow conservatives and I met to plan a legislative agenda. My colleagues were ecstatic. In one fell swoop we were going to do all the things that Democratic control of Congress had effectively blocked since 1954 [...]

I didn’t make myself very popular by reminding people that Bill Clinton was still going to be president for at least another two years. How were we going to get these measures enacted into law over his all-but-certain veto? [...]

Within a year, the conservative revolution was all but over. When Republicans forced a showdown with Mr. Clinton over the budget, they ended up blinking. [...]

My Democratic friends no doubt feel the way we Republicans did in those heady days of 1994 before political reality came knocking. Many probably think they will finally get the truth about what the White House knew about Iraq before the invasion. They may think they can use the power of the purse to force a withdrawal. Some may even imagine that articles of impeachment can be brought against President Bush, while others plan to enact national health insurance and other pet liberal schemes.

To all this I say: Ain’t gonna happen. For starters, President Bush will still occupy the White House for the next two years. And although his veto pen may have been misplaced for most of the last six years, he found it again this summer.

[...]

Good try Bruce, but perhaps you overlooked this:

Clinton was a popular president at that time and the public perception (correctly) was in his favour during the budget face-off (in contrast, when it came to such things as “Immigration Reform”, “Welfare Reform” Clinton got by only by co-opting the right-wing agenda).

On the other hand, Bush is one of the most unpopular presidents, coming in at or below 40% for most of this year. His own actions contributed greatly to the impending GOP losses. Moreover, the public is solidly behind many of the projects listed (getting to the bottom of Bush lies, withdrawal from Iraq) and again is rejecting the GOP for these very reasons.

Bruce is probably correct about Bush employing the veto, which I predict will further lower his popularity and expose him to lame duck punishment by his own party.

Oh, and regarding Bruce’s assumption that investors may worry about a Democratic win, the situation seems quite the opposite as indices have quite nicely tracked (positively) Democratic likelihood of winning the house.

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