Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Bill Kristol predicts Republicans will cave on Bush tax cuts for wealthy

And not only does Kristol (editor of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard) predict that Republicans will cave on allowing Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy to expire, he says that they should cave'and points out that under Ronald Reagan, the top marginal rate was much higher than it would be even if the Bush tax cuts expire:

Kristol's basic argument is that the the fight Republicans should be focused on is the fight over tax reform. Presumably, he means the question of whether to reduce tax rates below the Bush levels assuming something like a cap on deductions is put in place. My guess is that he thinks Republicans would benefit from calling for additional across the board tax cuts beyond the Bush levels. Superficially, that might seem like a smart strategy'people always like tax cuts, right? Except Mitt Romney proposed exactly that plan. And he lost'because people aren't clamoring for lower tax rates. So I don't think Kristol is right, but if that's how he wants to rationalize caving, I'm all for it. Because Republicans do need to cave, and the sooner they cave, the sooner we can move on to dealing with the next problem.


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