Newsflash: GOP isn’t actually opposed to tax hikes

By Adam Serwer
WashPost

Republicans are steadfastly opposed to raising taxes. Except when they aren’t.

House Speaker John Boehner is touting a report from the National Association of Business Economists as vindication for the GOP’s opposition to tax hikes. The Boehner release claims that the views of economists reflects the “sentiment of the American people,” who oppose tax hikes “in a big way.”

But as Steve Benen points out, a closer look at the survey shows that “nearly 88 percent of working business economists” actually disagreed with the House GOP mantra that, as Boehner’s office put it in the release, “spending cuts are the key to reducing the federal deficit - not job-crushing tax hikes.”

All this is happening even as Republicans are currently on board for what under other circumstances they themselves might call a “job crushing tax-hike.” Now that President Obama wants to renew the payroll tax holday, Republicans are opposed.

Republican anti-tax crusaders were adamant that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would count as “raising taxes. But as Greg reported yesterday, Grover Norquist is hemming and hawing on the payroll tax cut, with a spokesman saying his group will wait “to see the final legislation” before deciding.

(More here.)