GOP Still Wants Tax Cuts For The Rich

(Image above is from the Forbes.com website.)

James Carville told Bill Maher the other day that there's a Southern saying that sometimes to get a mule to pay attention you have to smack him with a two-by-four -- and that the sound we heard on election day was pine colliding with skulls. But evidently Republican congressional skulls are thicker than those of mules, because they still haven't gotten the clear message sent by the voters on election day.

Since the election, several Republicans in the House (including GOP House leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor) have talked about "compromise". The only problem is that their idea of compromise is no compromise at all, but surrender to the Republican plan to give massive new tax cuts for the rich (and the corporations) and pay for it on the backs of the poor, the unemployed, the elderly, children, and higher taxes for the middle class. They would deny the higher taxes part, but what they are proposing is the Romney tax plan and every reasonable authority has said that would have to result in higher middle class taxes.

That's right. Their idea of compromise is for the president to adopt Romney's tax plan to cut taxes and close loopholes (deductions, which would affect the middle class more than anyone else). It is ridiculous that they would even suggest such a thing, let alone try to couch it as a compromise. Obviously the voters didn't smack them hard enough with that electoral two-by-four.

The House Republicans are trying to defend an indefensible position. The president campaigned on a program of higher taxes for the rich, while Romney campaigned on lower taxes for himself and his rich buddies. The American people made their choice clear by re-electing the president ( by more than a 3 million vote margin in the popular vote, and a landslide electoral vote). In addition, every poll taken in the last few months shows a significant majority of the public supports higher taxes for the rich. In continuing to defend new tax cuts for the rich, the Republicans are opposing the will of the American public.

There is a compromise to be had. It involves preserving the tax cuts for everyone  making less than $250,000 a year, letting the tax cuts expire for those making more than $250,000 a year, and making cuts in military spending. That is a compromise that makes sense, and it is time for the Republicans to agree to it.