Posted on 11/12/2012 8:07:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
This is called surrendering before the war starts: Conservative commentator and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Sunday the Republican Party should accept new ideas, including the much-criticized suggestion by Democrats that taxes be allowed to go up on the wealthy.
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"It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "It really won't, I don't think. I don't really understand why Republicans don't take Obama's offer."
"Really? The Republican Party is going to fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile?" he asked.
One of the biggest fights as Congress returns will be over taxes, as cuts put in place by former President George W. Bush are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans want to extend those tax cuts for all income brackets, while Democrats want to raise revenue by allowing them to expire for wealthy Americans.
Exit polls last week found that six in ten voters supported ending the tax cuts on the wealthy, but House Republicans have remained adamantly opposed to allowing any of the rates to expire, instead supporting other changes to the tax code. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated on Friday that was unlikely to change.
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First of all, if Kristol wants to go belly up and grovel before Obama before negotiations even begin, that's his business. Leave the rest of us out of it.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
But Kristol - and much of Washington - misses the point. It’s not that raising tax rates would break the rich. Money is not the issue. Nor will raising rates on the wealthy impede economic growth - such as it is. That is not the issue either.
The point is, we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. It’s a simple, common sense principle:
Don’t raise taxes until you have to. And that means, cutting every last dollar from the budget that can be safely squeezed out of it before thinking about raising taxes on anybody to balance the budget.
Even if it “wouldn’t kill the country” Bill . . if you cave on this, you think they’ll stop at the % and level of taxable incomes?
Or will that just encourage them further?
Was it Kristol’s grandfather that said it won’t kill if they kill the jews.
Get ready, folks. Nothing “conservative” will happen. Here comes Obamacare, amnesty, and higher taxes. Forget about cutting spending.
Kristol, a “Conservative” Commentator?......gag me
I’m cutting Kristol some slack for this. I completely agree in principle that the issue is spending, and that agree in fact that raising taxes on the rich will have negligible impact.
But I see some merit in giving Obama what he wants if only to demonstrate to the public that his “solutions” are nothing of the sort.
Here is an idea I have completely not thought through: why not make any tax increase “temporary”?
We raise taxes and OBAMA spends it...what FOOLS...may be have a one year tax increase if we can get the 800 billion stimulus out of the budget..and cuts so the deficit goes below 300 billion...It is really OBAMACARE....less revenue to the government because unemployment will go up..plus OBAMACARE taxes..
I read that the richest zip codes all went for Obama. You know what -screw em - let em get what they voted for.
“Fiscal Cliff”
devastating crash, no entitlements, social upheaval.
No way to avoid it, and I don’t think we really want to,
because “through” is the only way out.
I agree w Kristol but go further. Let the tax rates on EVERYONE rise, along w spending cuts - real or illusory.
Let’s go to sequester.
Let Obama and Reid own ALL of the disaster that ensues.
Exactly. It might not “hurt” them much initially, but it won’t do anything to help the economy, either, and very possibly hurt it.
So when liberals discover that say, a 10% increase on taxes to the “rich” doesn’t work, they’ll raise it by 20%. Then 50%. Then . . . the sky is the limit.
Raise the taxes of the Hollywood elites.
Raise the taxes of the Silicon Valley Obama enthusiasts.
Raise the taxes of the Warren Buffets and other limousine liberals who have been begging for the government to take their wealth.
Now having siad that, these same “wealthy” types out to be prosecuted if they attempt to shelter their assets offshore following the increase. George Lucas, the hypocrite, comes to mind.
RE: why not make any tax increase “temporary”?
WATCH CALIFORNIA. That is what Proposition 30 (which the Californians passed ) is all about. A “temporary” tax increase on millionaires.
How many are willing to bet that this “temporary” tax increase will be permanent?
Also how many are willing to bet that the “rich” will be defined down to $100,000 and less?
“The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program” — Ronald Reagan.
First - that isn't a new idea. It's been around since Karl Marx and FDR, and it's been destroying economic freedom for decades.
It “won’t kill me” if Kristol will be struck dumb!
Let them reap what they sow.
A conservative is just a Liberal who got mugged, after all.
Let there be mugggings!
Obama still has no plan. His last attempt at a budget got exactly zero votes in the House and Senate. Let him put his tax and spending plan in writing in the open for all to see and review.
Given his and Reid’s success in getting budgets passed over the last 4 years, let these power-hungry thieves put a plan in writing first. I know it’s asking for much, but the Republicans owe nothing in concessions. It is the up to the President to take the lead. As we all know, he is incapable of leadership. No reason to take the lead of surrender monkeys like Kristol and let Obama and Reid off the hook.
Oh, sure, by all means, raise the tax rate on the top bracket of tax payers. Just let the old tax rates, those that were replaced by the “Bush tax rates”, revert to their former level, all up and down the scale.
The bracket that was 10%, becomes 15%. The next bracket, that was 25%, becomes 28%. 28% becomes 31%. 33% becomes 36%. The top rate, 35% becomes 39.6%.
Yeah, we need to kick those rich guys’ collective butts.
How come kicking THEIR butts gives US the nosebleed?
So please explain to me why I should believe or support anything that the GOP says? We have a deal that cuts spending, stick to the deal. Make a new deal for more spending cuts when once again the debt ceiling has to be raised in a couple of months.
"It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires..."
Ah yes, the ever-prescient Mr. Kristol. The man who accurately told us all how the Democracy Movement in Egypt was going to bring peace and prosperity to the Mideast...
I agree. I don't see attempting to raise taxes on millionaires (they'll avoid paying it) as a big issue. We don't have a conservative majority. The debt is going to destroy us. Give them their millionaires tax in return for real cuts.
Dead on. Tax Hollywood movies 90%, Buffet can pay 90% on all holdings, etc. Let’s get back to the 1950’s 90% tax on the rich but remove all deductions. Why not? While we are at it, tax everyone else 50%. If 36% is good, then more must be better.
Give the liberals what they want even if they don’t understand it until they do understand it.
“A conservative is just a Liberal who got mugged, after all. Let there be mugggings!”
Well said! Worth repeating! Until the liberals feel protective of their lives and fortunes they will continue to call for the taking of ours!
Taxing the rich is a tag line that will make little difference in the economy-the truth is, the rich don’t have enough money to fix it. And the government’s insatiable lust for spending will never be curbed by more revenue, which will mostly likely only serve to increase spending. Like a drug addict on a binge, the only thing that will instill restraint will be a total collapse of the economy, which Obama’s re-election will only serve to hasten.
How is France’s private sector doing under these tax-the-rich policies?
The libs in AZ were enraged when their favorite 'temporary' 1% tax surcharge was not made permanent in the election this year. One of the most effective ads against the renewal was a video of two state senators piously promising this would only be temporary, immediatley folloewed by newer footage of both of them insisting it was always supposed to be permanent, for the children you know.
As for Kristol, he is correct that the tax itself wont destroy anything, but it is also correct to say it wont fix anything. It will just serve to de-motivate a few more small business owners. And maybe that is the real goal.
One point that is seldom made is that the “tax on millionaires” will be a tax on their income, not their worth or assets.
For the majority of them, they can move their income to the poverty level and continue to live the life to which they are accustomed.
Now look at N. Dakota, a conservative microcosm.
Hmmm....Now which state better off?
If you guessed Dakota, you guessed correctly.
I agree. So it should be used as a bargaining chip. If they can get something that will help the economy more than the tax hit will hurt it's worth a deal.
Big IF I know.
Does any thinking person really believe the definition will not be lowered further, since thats where the real money is?
Mr. Kristol,
the reason we oppose higher taxes is because they are already so incredibly high that they are choking off the American economy and killing jobs.
Raising them further will only push more people onto the dole.
What we need to do is LOWER taxes significantly (cutting dysfunctional and.or wasteful spending to bring the resulting budget into balance).
We would normally look to you in your position to be championing LOWERING taxes, not giving cover or “enabling” the communist left to further raise them!
Please reconsider.
This might be our best option. All the freedom loving folks concentrate in a few freedom loving states to be run for the sake of freedom. Of course these states will become stinking rich so it’ll be a battle to fight off the rest of the blue hoards but.....
Fred Barnes and Kristol are going with glass half full optimism, after Barnes was SO wrong and neither apparently will not be feeling it in their pocket books like the rest of us. A good ‘buying opportunity’ in stocks for them. Where in Manhattan or Westchester suburb do they live? Aargh.
Tennessee does not have an income tax, and it is a ‘right to work’ state. Republicans control everything. An excellent state for growing your own food. Any downsides, beside Nashville and Memphis?
I agree. Let ‘em all expire. Every stinking tax cut. They can argue about it till forever, but just do it, and see what happens. And cut all the loopholes too. And we want to see Reid’s and Pelosi’s tax returns. It will give us good ideas as to where to start closing them.
Those "M's and B's" that voted for Obama don't have regular income!!!!!
Property taxes a little high. Live in a more rural area and only pay county taxes, not county AND city.
I looked at the data and most of those who would be effected by obama’s tax hike on the “rich” voted for him. Good - let them eat tax hikes for all i care.
Billy has outed himself as the COMMUNIST he is.
They’ll feel it if subscriptions to the National Review are totally gone...
RINOs might keep it afloat...conservatives should have NO part of it.
Nashville and Memphis?
Convince ‘em “Californee is the place you oughta be”.
I'd say it sounds like a damn good idea.
Let the taxes go up and the economy crash. The rats own it now.
Perhaps it will educate the voters that suffer the most.
How many millionaires and billionaires have you seen go broke these past four years? Obama is just a grifter. He’s not a socialist. How many times did you see Stalin or Mao or Castro play golf? Obama is a con man. If he tells you something, put your hand on your wallet because he’s getting ready to take it. He threatens to tax the rich? OK. Let’s see what they say and do. If they start donating millions to the Republicans, then we’ll know it’s real. If not, it’s just more baloney from a grifter trying to confuse you so he can get your wallet.
...in exchange for shutting down the Dept. of Education.
There is no shame in an organized retreat to regroup and consolidate.
Good advice, but property taxes in Tennessee are 20 - 25% of the same in New England, if that.
I don’t really understand why Republicans don’t take Obama’s offer.
See post #27,Obama&Co goal isn’t to make the poor rich buy make the rich poor.So far the plan is working.
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