The Republicans who put their names on that letter didn’t say they were endorsing tax hikes. “I specifically asked about that in the meeting,” said Rep. Lee Terry, a conservative Republican from Nebraska who has never voted for tax increases. “I said, does this commit me to raising taxes? And Stephen LaTourette (of Ohio, one of the brains behind the letter) said, ‘No. This just says revenues.’ That could mean spectrum fees, or something like that. It doesn’t commit me to raising taxes.”
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So what do the doubting Republicans actually want? Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican with spotless conservative cred, signed on to the letter, too. He meant it as a suggestion: Guys, be serious and do tax reform.“I believe we need to get rid of the underbrush,” he said. “Some of these loopholes. The best way to do that it with a tax code that’s half an inch deep and miles and miles wide. We want clarity in it, and we want equity.”
What kind of equity? “It galls me when I hear about a major corporation or a very wealthy individual not paying taxes,” he said. “But at the same time, when you hear about 50 percent of the population not paying taxes, that galls me also.”
That’s your “equity” for you, conservative style. People who are so poor that after their meager income is chopped up by basic necessities, sales taxes, state taxes and payroll taxes they have so little money left that they are exempt from federal taxes is as “galling” as a hugely profitable billion dollar corporation paying no federal taxes. I’m guessing even more galling. After all, the corporations are jaaahb creators.
Once again, if you’re a praying sort, pray for gridlock. I don’t know if the election or Occupy Wall Street or some act of God will intervene to stop this runaway train but all we can do right now is hope the Republicans live up to their obstructionist impulses and throw a bunch of obstacles in its way.
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