As portions of the Republican Party split over how to tackle fiscal cliff negotiations, Yahoo News asked GOP voters to weigh in: Which camp in the party do they support? Here's one perspective.
COMMENTARY | As the fiscal cliff nears, President Obama is clutching to his tax increases even though he had previously said revenue could be raised without such tax-rate increases. Real Clear Politics has posted a 2011 video of a press conference in which Obama says this.
So why is the president so parochial about tax rate increases on the "wealthiest" or the "most fortunate" or "those who can afford it"?
Because tax rates for the Democrats have less to do with revenue than with control. Knowing full-well any rate increases will not produce an increase in the IRS coffers, the taxes will be deferred to the largest sector of taxpayers in the nation... the middle class.
The Republicans, rather than stand up to President Obama and hold him to his own previously stated confidence to raise revenue without rate increases, will likely fold.
Rush Limbaugh called John Boehner's handling of these talks a "seminar" on how to cave in to Democrats. Furthermore, the Republicans could also use the president's own words when he extended the Bush tax cuts, something that hits close to home for me.
In that press conference, the president said that "now was not the time to raise taxes" [sic] on anyone. Well, no economic indicators have improved since then. Why is now the proper time?
-- Douglas Stewart, Bridgeport, Conn.