Bob Corker 2016: What 3 Leading Pundits Say About Potential GOP Presidential Hopeful

Washington wouldn’t be Washington without leading political pundits weighing in on who will run as the GOP presidential candidate in 2016. Like sports announcers with inside information, they talk game strategy, explain plays, natter about statistics, and predict winners and losers.

Here’s what some leading pundits have said about the potential 2016 GOP hopeful Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker..

1. CQ Roll Call writer Niels Lesniewski has described Corker as an effective “outlier,” who goes “out on a limb” on issues that need better debate and fiscal policy.

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2. The longtime conservative pundit George Will wrote this month that Corker may be the “senator who matters most in 2015.” Will praised Corker’s push for a stronger debate in Congress about funding President Barack Obama’s executive decisions regarding wars, particularly in Syria. Will also praised bills authored by Corker, the new chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, regarding sanctions against Russia and military aid to Ukraine.

3. A Wall Street economist and former Reagan advisor found the potential presidential hopeful’s push to raise the federal gas tax an uneducated fumble. Corker recently went on the media circuit, arguing for a 12 cents a gallon federal tax hike over the next two years from the current 18.4 cents a gallon. The increase in revenue would go toward repairing the nation’s fraying roads and infrastructure, Corker said.

Larry Kudlow’s column sent Corker to the history-book woodshed, saying the new Finance Committee Chair’s proposal was beyond the purpose of the federal gas tax implemented under President Eisenhower. That purpose was to build and maintain interstate highways, not state pet projects.

“If states like California want to build $100 billion speed trains to nowhere, let them. But people in the rest of the country shouldn’t have to pay for it with gas and diesel taxes,” Kudlow wrote in is Jan. 10, 2015, op-ed “Corker’s folly: THIS is your first GOP message?”

Vote Now: Which Potential GOP Candidate Would You Support in 2016?

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