“I, as a Republican, I would take raising the rates on the two top brackets if, in return, we had tax reform laid out over a period of months, if we had entitlement reform,” Barbour said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Barbour said that while he didn’t like the idea of higher taxes, Republicans should look at what they could gain.

“Look we got to control defense spending, we got to control the other discretionary non-defense spending. So I think if you have the whole package, I would hold my nose despite the facts that raising those two brackets are bad economics, are bad for jobs, are going to hurt the economy,” he said. “I would hold my nose to get the other done. What I wouldn’t do is vote for that and do nothing else.”