Wall Street Journal reports today that the Administration is signaling flexibility about the tax increases proposed in its budget. This could be a reflection of the fact that, on tax battles, Republicans usually have a home turf advantage and moderate Dems don’t want to play there.
I was thinking about President Clinton’s 1995 declaration to a group of Houston businessmen that “I think I raised your taxes too much.”
Before we run the risk of that, someone should check in with the president (or his team) and find out how much might be too much. Is there a level of taxation that even they think would go too far?
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Republicans are pressing the spending message hard. John Boehner is in today’s Washington Post and John Cornyn’s most recent email to NRSC supporters gets printed in Politico. Both use the talking point that President Obama and allies “have spent more money than the combined cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the response to Hurricane Katrina.”
And both blast the president for reneging on his pledge to change the tone, instead sending Rahm Emanuel out to talk about Rush Limbaugh.
Might be dicey to introduce Katrina into the debate – that’s kind of a red meat issue on the left. But most Americans should recognize it in context as an example of lots of spending.
I imagine the natural Democratic response is: “It’s time to stop wasting money in Iraq and start spending real money to help New Orleans and other struggling communities all across America.”
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Kudos to Boehner and Indiana’s Democratic Senator Evan Bayh, who trashed the omnibus in yesterday’s WSJ. Neither used the word “inherit.”
