“Republicans no longer win the tax issue and it hurts at the ballot box”
Among top party leaders and strategists, there’s a grudging recognition that the politics of taxation just aren’t what they used to be. In an age of fiscal anxiety, looming deficits and a potential entitlement meltdown, Americans aren’t flatly opposed to increasing taxes – at least, not for the wealthiest taxpayers…
“We’re in this impossible, upside-down position, where if you do nothing, taxes go up. That’s what we got saved from. That goes away now,” said anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform and supported the fiscal deal. “Obama had the leverage that the tax cuts are disappearing. The leverage is all his. I’m surprised we did as well as we did.”…
“Republicans no longer win the tax issue and it hurts at the ballot box. Our polling shows that even base Republicans are wanting more from the GOP’s tax message. That’s because voters think that ‘protecting the rich’ is all they are offering. Due credit to the president on that one,” said Brock McCleary, the former polling director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, who heads the firm Harper Polling. “Getting high marks for fiscal discipline won’t happen until Republicans somehow dispatch the notion that they care only about the rich. It’s an imperative to not let that define the Republican economic message.”…
“The sane wing of the Republican Party recognized the GOP was playing a losing hand badly on taxes in a way that was deeply damaging to the Republican brand,” Garin said. “The Republicans will find themselves in a similar mess going forward if they insist on entitlement cuts while resisting new revenues from closing loopholes and tax breaks for those at the top.”
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The “sane wing?”
So tell me again what precisely the Republican party is supposed to stand for if fiscal conservatism is now considered “madness?” Social conservatives have been virtually expelled from the party, and Republicans are increasingly incoherent on foreign policy (torn between those who want to disband the army and see it as a tool of oppression, and those who want a strong and aggressive defense policy). Is it now “insanity” to cut spending and taxes?
This is why principles matter. The Republicans now stand for nothing and its core – the base – sees it and is now drifting away. We saw the first stirrings of this in 2012 and I think it will get worse in 2014 and 2016.
Doomberg on January 2, 2013 at 5:36 PM
Long-winded way of saying that envy rules!
OldEnglish on January 2, 2013 at 5:36 PM
Getting high marks for fiscal discipline won’t happen until Republicans hold power and exercise fiscal discipline.
What happened last time they held power? Oh right, they passed Medicare Part D, ran huge deficits, and allowed Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy to inflate a real estate bubble.
Why did they do those things again? To “somehow dispatch the notion that they only care about the rich.”
HitNRun on January 2, 2013 at 5:48 PM
Raising taxes is like spitting into a bucket.
darwin on January 2, 2013 at 5:50 PM
The “sane wing” is the Vichy Conservatives and they have killed the GOP, just as they had done in 2006-2008 with their INsane amnesty. This time, though, it’s permanent. Time to call it quits on this dying nation, the black hole of the American Socialist Superstate, and file for national divorce to re-establish an American nation.
The “sane wing” – the Vichy Conservatives – can stay in the A.S.S. with their national socialist Indonesian/Dem masters. We don’t want you azzwipes anywhere around. You’re as bad as the leftists you serve.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on January 2, 2013 at 5:55 PM
Obama successfully demagogued the GOP’s position as only wanting tax cuts for the rich. Voters that bought into that don’t realize that Obama also wants their taxes raised, but can’t actually say it out loud, but once people’s paychecks start shrinking and Obama is out their demanding more taxes they’ll remember why they liked the Bush tax rates. Not to mention the upcoming ‘tax’ of Obamacare.
supernova on January 2, 2013 at 6:05 PM
The Republican Party is dead. Just being dem-lite as they were last night is going to doom the party. Of cours, this is Politico, so the source is biased, but the issu,e with the spineless party is true.
AZfederalist on January 2, 2013 at 6:11 PM
That’s the inevitable result of exempting half the country from paying income taxes.
Charlemagne on January 2, 2013 at 6:27 PM
Heh … the amazing thing to me is … when I’m faced with an unwinnable situation – I find it VERY easy to DO the right thing.
When the GOP is faced with an unwinnable situation – they choose to increase the deficit.
They lost JUST AS MUCH in this deal as they would have lost by all voting NO!
The only difference is – had they voted no – they would still have honor and integrity on their side for standing up for the principle of smaller government (which is what they’ve said they’ve been FOR for over 50 years).
Now – they lose … they lose big … and their integrity is in shreds.
The party stand for nothing – let it burn now.
HondaV65 on January 2, 2013 at 6:42 PM
We mutually agreed to work together because the end goal was the same; starve the beast. But, the wealthier wing was able to leverage the party under W, and we’re now the ones paying for it.
It’s not a mistake that people have come to view the GOP as the representatives of the wealthy because the Repub’s spent a decade courting that group and took the rest of us for granted.
What the black vote is to the Dems, we are to the Repubs.
budfox on January 2, 2013 at 7:02 PM
We have Newt Gingrich to thank for saying that about Romney during the primary.
But I do have to disagree with the premise that republicans are not for tax reform, that was what Romney ran on, and SS reform…Romney and Ryan ran on that, and in a few days, every American is going to be confused when their paychecks return to the Democrat set SS rates, that includes checks for kids with ADHD and people who fall off unemployment and apply for SSDI, 8 million people, raiding the SS fund early, and forever, and at a higher rate, because they “can’t” work anymore…for $10 an hour, when it is available.
Tax reform now. Social Security reform now…SS for the elderly only. And no one should get an old age pension, until they are OLD.
If you retire from the government or the military at 55. Nice. You get your check when the REST of us do.
Fleuries on January 2, 2013 at 7:10 PM
Duh.
If the Republicans had been smart enough to figure this out earlier, we’d be talking about President Romney now.
Maybe it’s finally sinking in that “social conservatives”, a “lack of diversity”, or whatever other nonsense the usual morons come up with, are not to blame.
Meghan Mccain and John Avlon hardest hit.
And don’t tell me that it doesn’t matter, if we didn’t fight to keep the rates low we’d be giving up our principles-there were plenty of other principles to fight for-after Obama gets done instituting a carbon tax, tearing apart what little traditional social fabric still exists, restricting gun ownership, introducing British-style hate speech codes, the continuation and expansion of Obamacare, etc. etc.-you won’t recognize this country in four years.
All sacrificed in a losing effort to keep tax rates low for the rich.
fighting the good fight, as they say……
DUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMBDUMB
Dreadnought on January 2, 2013 at 8:08 PM
What other dem talking points have you bought in to?
xblade on January 2, 2013 at 9:57 PM
You tell me why Romney lost.
These are democratic talking points?
Tell me it was worth it.
Dreadnought on January 3, 2013 at 1:27 AM