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.
Why? Because they've painted themselves into an ideological corner.
Virtually every Republican in the House and Senate has signed the pledge by Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform that requires them never, ever to raise any tax unless the proceeds go to lower tax rates. As Bill Clinton said over the weekend about lawmakers' fear of crossing Norquist, "My God, what has this country come to when one person has to give you permission to do what's best for the country?"
Compromise is an essential part of democracy, but negotiating with Republicans over taxes has become as futile as trying to bargain with the Taliban over whether girls should be allowed to attend school. Maybe it's too late for facts to make a difference....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-07-04-our-view-debt-limit-taxes_n.htm
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