Even before the election results came in Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was focused on narrowing options for compromise to resolve the looming “fiscal cliff,” saying he would not support a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans. But on Fox News Sunday, conservative Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol counseled Republican leadership to stop “falling on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires”:
I think honest debate, fresh thinking, leadership in the Republican party and the leadership in the conservative movement has to pull back, let people float new ideas. Let’s have a serious debate. Don’t scream and yell over what one person says.
You know what? It won’t kill the country if Republicans raise taxes a little bit on millionaires. It really won’t, I don’t think.
I don’t really understand why Republicans don’t take Obama’s offer to freeze taxes for everyone below $250,000. Make it $500,000, make it a million.
Really? The Republican party is gonna 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 to Republicans?
Watch it:
Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) infamous budget proposal would have cut taxes on those making more than $1 million, while ending tax cuts for those with the lowest incomes — a plan Kristol predicted Republicans would have difficulty defending. But even in the face of poor election results and exit polls that showed 60 percent of Americans support higher taxes for the wealthy, Boehner reiterated his opposition to raising taxes on Friday, as did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).