Eric Cantor is a member of the House Republican leadership and is therefore responsible for, you know, leading. We all know that rank-and-file Republicans ran for and won office on a pledge to lower, not raise, the tax burden on the rich. So, in any deal that raises taxes on the rich, the House leadership would have to provide some cover for their caucus members. But, Eric Cantor apparently has no intention of providing that cover and has pulled out of talks with the vice-president over the extension of the debt limit.
“Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue,” Cantor said. “Given this impasse, I will not be participating in today’s meeting and I believe it is time for the president to speak clearly and resolve the tax issue,” he said.
Cantor said that the talks so far have established a “blueprint” for going forward.
“I believe that we have identified trillions in spending cuts, and to date, we have established a blueprint that could institute the fiscal reforms needed to start getting our fiscal house in order,” he said.
“That said, each side came into these talks with certain orders, and as it stands the Democrats continue to insist that any deal must include tax increases. There is not support in the House for a tax increase, and I don’t believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic situation,” he said.
Now, we all know that the Republicans are negotiating from a starting position where there are trillions in cuts but no new taxes. But walking out of the talks over the issue indicates that the Republicans are not just unwilling, but incapable of making compromises. Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterates the point:
“So there’s one of two things going on here: Either someone on the other side has forgotten that there’s strong, bipartisan opposition in Congress to raising taxes. Or someone involved is acting in bad faith,” McConnell said.
“We’ve known from the beginning that tax hikes would be a poison pill to any debt reduction proposal.” he said.
They are going to blow up the global economy through their intransigence and unreasonableness.
