Republicans To Obama On Taxes: Let’s Compromise By Not Raising Taxes

President Obama ran on raising taxes and won. House Republicans ran on not raising taxes, and got to keep their majority. So now the GOP is offering a familiar sounding compromise: let’s not raise taxes.

More specifically, Obama’s re-election, and the looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts, have made House Republicans’ prime imperative to preserve the current tax rates on high earners, which Obama campaigned and won on returning to Clinton era levels.

It’s a big ask, given the results of the election, and Obama’s long-standing pledge to veto legislation that extends all of the Bush tax cuts, even temporarily. Thus, their hopes rest on a vague suggestion that they’ll concede higher revenues in a future tax reform agreement with Obama, so long as he drops his demands for higher tax rates and agrees to cut entitlement spending.

This sounds familiar because it’s broadly speaking the same deficit cutting deal Republicans spent most of this past Congress pursuing — one that raises little, if any revenue, let alone revenue from high earners. And early signs indicate that Democrats won’t bite.