Visual source: Newseum
Froma Harrop:
Poll after poll shows that the American people want higher taxes. That's not the same as liking higher taxes. The people have simply concluded that higher taxes are preferable to the alternative -- so vividly portrayed in the Republican plan to do away with government guarantees in Medicare.
And Republicans don't even have that ugly option to offer anymore. After voters in western New York rioted over it by handing a formerly safe GOP congressional seat to a Democrat, many Republicans have been jumping ship. Odd that House Speaker John Boehner continues to sail on with nothing in the hold but a vague threat to let America default on its debt if ... if what? If Democrats refuse to make the drastic spending cuts Republicans are afraid to push.
What do the American people think? A Quinnipiac poll found that 69 percent, including nearly half of Republicans, want taxes raised on households making more than $250,000. A later Ipsos/Reuters polls shows three-fifths wanting to raise taxes to cut the deficit.
USA Today:
Republicans deserve major credit for forcing action on deficit reduction when President Obama and many Democrats in Congress were showing little interest. But if the GOP walkout is anything more than a negotiating tactic, it is breathtakingly irresponsible, considering the risks of default: higher interest rates, loss of America's Triple-A credit rating, and an immediate 45% reduction in government spending that could leave Social Security recipients, doctors and soldiers with IOUs instead of cash.
The standoff over taxes is the sad culmination of years of increasing GOP fealty to a politically handy economic fantasy: Tax cuts are always good, and tax increases are always bad. As this view has hardened over the last decade, the nation has used trillions of dollars in borrowed money to finance two wars, Medicare's prescription drug program and President George W. Bush's broad tax cuts — all initiated with the GOP controlling both the White House and Congress. Now Republicans have belatedly decided that borrowing is bad, too, but they dogmatically resist even the most sensible and painless tax hikes.
Richard Cohen:
Someone ought to study the Republican Party. I am not referring to yet another political scientist but to a mental health professional, preferably a specialist in the power of fixations, obsessions and the like. The GOP needs an intervention. It has become a cult.
To become a Republican, one has to take a pledge. It is not enough to support the party or mouth banalities about Ronald Reagan; one has to promise not to give the government another nickel. This is called the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” issued by Americans for Tax Reform, an organization headed by the chirpy Grover Norquist. He once labeled the argument that an estate tax would affect only the very rich “the morality of the Holocaust.” Anyone can see how singling out the filthy rich and the immensely powerful and asking them to ante up is pretty much the same as Auschwitz and that sort of thing.
Eugene Robinson:
Here’s how to negotiate, GOP-style: Begin by making outrageous demands. Bully your opponents into giving you almost all of what you want. Rather than accept the deal, add a host of radical new demands. Observe casually that you wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to the hostage you’ve taken — the nation’s well-being. To the extent possible, look and sound like Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.”
This strategy has worked so well for Republicans that it’s no surprise they’re using it again, this time in the unnecessary fight over what should be a routine increase in the debt ceiling. This time, however, something different is happening: President Obama seems to be channeling Robert De Niro in “Taxi Driver.” At a news conference last Wednesday, Obama’s response to the GOP was, essentially, “You talkin’ to me?”
NY Times:
Congressional Republicans have opened a new front in the deficit wars. In addition to demanding trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit, they are now vowing not to act without first holding votes in each chamber on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
The ploy is more posturing on an issue that has already seen too much grandstanding. But it is posturing with a dangerous purpose: to further distort the terms of the budget fight, and in the process, to entrench the Republicans’ no-new-taxes-ever stance.
Jeff Merkely, Rand Paul, and Tom Udall:
LAST month President Obama announced plans for withdrawing by next summer the approximately 30,000 American troops sent to Afghanistan as part of the 2009 surge.
We commend the president for sticking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular combat troops until 2014. We believe the United States is capable of achieving this goal by the end of 2012. America would be more secure and stronger economically if we recognized that we have largely achieved our objectives in Afghanistan and moved aggressively to bring our troops and tax dollars home.
Albert Hunt:
Only seven years ago, in the aftermath of the legalization of same-sex marriages in Massachusetts, President George W. Bush’s strategist, Karl Rove, used the issue to scare voters in Ohio and elsewhere. It worked.
About that time, the most respected Republican pollster, Bob Teeter, noted that while the U.S. was becoming much more tolerant generally, it would probably remain divided on gay marriage for a long time. The late Mr. Teeter, like many of us, would be surprised at how rapidly attitudes are changing. Today, many surveys show majority support for gay marriage; less than a decade ago it was almost 2-to-l against. Then, the public was divided on civil unions for gays and lesbians; there are strong majorities in favor now.