Lest their be any confusion about where the GOP stands on holding President Obama's middle-class tax cuts hostage for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, here's the second-ranking House Republican writing on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page:
Tax Fight: GOP Won't Back Down
By Eric Cantor
As we enter the final stretch before the November midterm elections, all eyes have gravitated to the fight over the looming federal tax increases. President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi want to keep the current rates on income, capital gains and dividends in place only for those who happen to fit their description of "middle class." In this moment of economic distress, will they get their way even though a bipartisan majority of the House disagrees with them? Or will present tax rates be extended for all American taxpayers—and most importantly for small businesses and investors, the nation's job creators?
Republicans unequivocally oppose any impending tax increase. House Republicans have called on Speaker Pelosi to allow the House to vote on legislation that would freeze all tax rates for the next two years. It's a vote the taxpayers of this country deserve before November.
Cantor says he wrote the article to explain why the GOP is "so determined to fight—instead of going quietly and giving President Obama his way before Congress bolts for the elections."
But what Cantor doesn't explain is why Republicans only favor a two-year extension of President Obama's middle-class tax cuts when Obama wants to extend them permanently. The reason is obvious, but Cantor can't say it out loud: Republicans want tax cuts for the wealthy permanently linked to tax cuts for the middle-class because the only way they'll get the former is by holding the latter hostage, time after time after time.
That's what this whole battle comes down to: should the middle-class be a bargain chip, a pawn in the GOP's ongoing jihad to reward wealth over work? President Obama and most Democrats say no. Republicans, from John Boehner and Mitch McConnell on down, say yes.