Free Republic

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on high earners and greenhouse gas polluters met fierce opposition Tuesday from congressional Republicans and also a few Democrats. "I would never want to adversely affect anything that is charitable or good," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said of Obama's call to limit high-income taxpayers' itemized deductions for charitable donations and mortgage interest. Republicans said the president's plan to charge fees to industries that spew greenhouse gases amounts to a stealthy tax increase for all Americans that will far exceed the new $400...

In his current incarnation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger never tires of asserting that Republicans are too rigidly ideological. On ABC's “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” he called state GOP lawmakers out of touch for refusing to go along with his budget deal, which included $12.8 billion in higher taxes and (honestly calculated) about $7 billion in spending cuts. Schwarzenegger in the next breath went on to reveal that he planned to renew his push for state health care “reform,” even if it requires another round of big tax hikes, “because that's what the people want you to do.” This is mind-boggling....