Senate GOP Stiffens as Boehner Goes Limp on Taxes

September 13, 2010

After months of pretending the Bush tax cuts paid for themselves and calling President Obama's opposition to another $700 billion windfall for the wealthy a "job killer" and "class warfare," House Minority Leader John Boehner on Sunday signaled his willingness to accept a compromise. But in the Senate, the Republican line remained as hard as ever against returning upper class tax rates to their Clinton-era levels.
Appearing on Face the Nation Sunday, would-be Speaker Boehner gave ground on President Obama's demand to let the Bush tax cuts expire for families earning over $250,000 a year. Just days after calling for a two-year freeze, Boehner seemed to acknowledge polls showing majorities of Americans consistently oppose another Treasury-draining payday for the gilded class:

"If the only option I have is to vote for some of those tax reductions, I'll vote for them."

But as the AP reported Monday morning, Senate Republicans are still standing firm in support of upper class tax cuts. Not to content to let the richest 2% of taxpayers pay the slightly higher rates they saw during the booming economic times of President Clinton, Republican members of the Senate will apparently rise as one at a time of massive budget deficits, record income inequality and increasing poverty:

Senate Republicans will oppose any effort to renew soon-to-expire Bush administration tax cuts if upper income taxpayers are excluded from the reductions.
A spokesman for Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell says the Kentucky Republican has pledges from every Senate Republican to filibuster President Barack Obama's plan to allow the top income tax rate to rise back to almost 40 percent on family or small business income over $250,000.
If Republicans stand together, that would deny Democrats the 60 votes they would need to push the measure through the Senate.

As the New York Times suggested Sunday, "If Democrats prevail, it would be a major policy victory, allowing Mr. Obama to boast that he had fulfilled yet another signature campaign promise," adding, "But the victory could come at a political cost. Mr. Boehner's move seemed to deprive Democrats of the argument that Republicans would hurt the middle class to help the rich."

For their part, that is an argument Boehner's Republican allies in the Senate appear all to willing to advance. And what Mitch McConnell and the GOP are demanding - more cash for millionaires even as the income gap reaches stratospheric levels -can be simply expressed in pictures: