At a town hall meeting yesterday, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) became the latest Republican member of Congress to face a backlash over the GOP’s intransigence against raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. As the Lincoln Journal Star reported, “many of the loudest voices and waving fingers urged Johanns to include tax increases — particularly applied to the wealthiest Americans — as part of the solution to debt reduction”:
“The wealthy just hoard the cash.”
“The old tax rates worked well for the economy under Clinton.”
“Quit listening to the scare tactics, all the crap in the media.”
Jennifer Wendelin, who waited to be recognized by Johanns before voicing her opinion, said additional revenue has to be part of the debt reduction solution along with spending cuts.
“Big corporations and the rich have to pay their fair share,” she said after the meeting had concluded. “If we have to bite the bullet, they do, too.
“We can’t be forced to shoulder the entire burden,” she said.
For his part, Johanns “continued to oppose an end to the Bush-era tax cuts.”
Last week, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) faced similar criticism at one of his town halls, which is no surprise considering that, according to recent polls, Americans overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the rich. As Travis Waldron put it, “Republicans continue ignore that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are among the main drivers of American debt and that falling tax rates on the rich have led to widening income gaps between the richest and poorest Americans.”