Bill Kristol Endorses Raising Taxes on Millionaires - NYTimes.com

When even Bill Kristol, the severely conservative Weekly Standard editor, says Republicans should agree to raise taxes on the richest Americans, you have to wonder if the G.O.P. has thought through its post-election, hold-the-line strategy. ?It won?t kill the country if Republicans raise taxes a little bit on millionaires,? Mr. Kristol said on Fox News on Sunday. ?It really won?t, I don?t think.?

Mr. Kristol said he couldn?t understand why Congressional Republicans were not taking the challenge President Obama made on Friday to extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes under $250,000. Or, bargain it up to $500,000 or a $1 million. ?Really,? he said. ?The Republican Party is gonna fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic, and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile to Republicans.?

I?m not buying Mr. Kristol?s demographics, or his geography, but he has a point. The Republican Party?s intransigence seems ill-conceived and tone deaf.

As Think Progress pointed out over the weekend, the G.O.P.?s version of fiscal ?compromise? sounds a lot like the Reagan-era voodoo economics that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan advocated during the campaign. It takes some brass to recycle the losing ticket?s plan and call it the reasonable way forward.

Republicans are open to all sorts of bargains, as long as they don?t include increasing tax rates. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma was one of several who recited talking points last week on ?comprehensive tax reform to raise revenue and lower rates? by ?eliminating inefficient loopholes and deductions.? That?s what Mr. Boehner means when he says he?s open to ?revenue? as part of a deal on the fiscal cliff.

The tax code could certainly use updating, but there is no possibility that Congress will reform it in the next few weeks. So what the Republicans are really saying is, give us everything we want now (an extension of all the Bush tax cuts), and maybe later we?ll throw something in for your side.

It?s a trap, and President Obama should not fall for it. He should stand firm on letting the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire on Dec. 31, while keeping in place the cuts on incomes under $250,000. It?s what Mr. Obama campaigned and won on, even in Florida after all the ballots from that voting-challenged state were counted.

Last Friday, Mr. Obama excited talking heads in Washington by referring to increases in ?revenue? instead of ?rates.? I hope that is not a sign that he is preparing to cave in on the budget talks, yet again. During the campaign Mr. Obama frequently asked crowds why we would want to go back to bad policies that led to the Great Recession. He might want to keep reviewing those videos.

Source: http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/bill-kristol-go-ahead-raise-taxes/

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