Flawed Thinking on Taxes

An interesting article in the Washington Post points out the flawed Republican thinking about taxes:

"Many liberals are aghast that Obama is offering up a deal that would slice deeply into entitlements and discretionary spending in return for only half as much in added tax revenue as recommended last year by the fiscal commission he appointed. But it now appears they have little to fear, since even this deal is unacceptable to House Republicans. Obama’s gambit has made more apparent that the Republican priority is less closing the deficit per se than shrinking government and, above all, cutting taxes.

This singular focus has been several decades in the making. The Reagan Revolution was spurred by “supply side” animus, but Reagan himself presided over several tax increases. He escaped GOP opprobrium, but when George H.W. Bush signed a deficit deal with higher taxes, he was cast as a traitor. George W. Bush passed two big tax cuts, which nonpartisan budget experts now say were a major factor in today’s deficits."
(Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/five-questions-on-the-debt-ceiling-debate/2011/07/14/gIQAcLKeGI_story_1.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost)

Obama seems willing to compromise and work to solve the country's problems. So far, Republicans have offered nothing but a return to the same fiscal policies that were in place when the recession started.