Sorry; I knew that one was a bit too graphic and did it anyway. 
- Edit 1
- Edit 1Before modification by Joel at 21/09/2011 05:49:56 AM
I'm sorry that you think the pledge is cynical, I don't know why, the right is blatantly and obviously devoutly and sincerely against tax hikes on anyone, if you think some of the politicians are playing on that fair enough, personally I think, with good cause, that most are as sincerely devoted to that as the rank and file. And if you odn't think the rank and file are, then you're essentially assuming that me, Trzaska, and RT are all cheerfully mouthing stuff we don't believe in.I can only speak for myself but I truly believe raising taxes on the rich will help us very little at best and likely hurt us an awful lot. Closing loopholes or shifting things around so that some of the ones who escape paying very little taxes is a different story, but raising the rate or making a new bracket? No way, I won't back that, not without clear and absolutely ironclad cuts several times larger in advance, and not cheerfully even then.
I'm sure they're sincere; that's my objection: The pledge is no more than political cover from the general electorate and colleagues on the other side for an intractable position to which they'd already committed.
As for accepting tax hikes only accompanied by cuts several times larger, that's the "grand bargain" Obama offered, the one with $3 trillion in cuts for just over half a trillion more in taxes that would've saved our credit rating, so we're back to what he told Cantor: Talk to your Speaker; even if we ignore the "spending cuts" for planned military withdrawals that was a roughly 4:1 ratio of spending cuts to taxes, so what more do you want? Even working on the dubious assumption that Democrats are any less servants of corporate interests than Republicans are, there's nowhere near enough trust for either side to expect the other to give make a major concession later if they make one now. It has to be simultaneous by both sides, because that's the only way to ensure neither reneges once they get what they wanted; Joe Lieberman proved that two years ago.
As for whether taxing the rich will help rather than hurt or the need for far greater spending cuts, we're running out of things to cut and have the lowest taxes of the past half century, so I obviously disagree.
EDIT: For greater precision.