Oregon’s gift to the Senate Finance Committee is about to be Sen. Ron Wyden. Wyden at the front of the line if his fellow Democrats keep control of the Senate in the 2014 elections.
The pending chairmanship offers Wyden the chance to be a key player on issues affecting a huge chunk of the economy and of government: taxes, health care, international trade and Social Security. To say nothing of the pressure, that slight twist in the groin administered by AIPAC operatives. But a name means nothing til you sign it. And Ron signed on long ago. Ask Bob Packwood; the former Senator was the last Oregonian to hold the committee's chairmanship before his resignation in 1995.
Packwood said that besides shaping legislation on some of the biggest issues in Washington, Wyden will be in a position to extract favors from the chairmen of other committees – all of whom also want provisions in the tax code that have a particular impact on their states.
Right: that’s how they get it done in Washington. Chairman a Chairman duels and deals.
- KBOO