The GOP compromise on debt limit

Marc Thiesen:

President Obama will meet with congressional leaders today in an attempt to revive the debt-limit talks that broke down last week over the Democrats’ insistence that any deal must include tax increases. The president knows full well that Republicans are not backing down on taxes — but he is using the issue to extract other concessions, such as getting the GOP to back his plan for massive and irresponsible reductions in defense spending. Will Republicans walk right into his trap?

Critics say Republicans are being unreasonable in rejecting any tax hikes. In an editorial last week,The Post called GOP leaders “childish and irresponsible” and pointed out that Democrats have agreed to accept $2 trillion in spending cuts while Republicans are refusing to accept any tax increases in exchange. “Where is the Republican flexibility?” the paper asked.

Let’s be clear: Compromise here isn’t spending cuts for a tax increase; compromise is spending cuts for a debt-limit increase....

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There is more

I think he makes a key point with the lasted quoted sentence. The emphasis was in the original. This is a point that Republicans need to be making when the tax increase canard comes up. Democrats created this mess with their uncontrolled spending and they need to get off the tax and spend cycle.

With voters overwhelming opposed to raising the debt limit, do Democrats really think they are going to swallow a tax increase to go along with the bitter pill of raising the debt limit?

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