Breaking Republicans’ anti-tax absolutism is key to understanding just about everything Democrats have been doing for months now, both in Washington and on the campaign trail. It’s the strategic underpinning of the Buffett Rule and the surtax on million-dollar earners; it’s the purpose of the so-called “sequester” — the deep cuts to defense and discretionary spending that will kick in next year if Congress doesn’t pass a substantial deficit-reduction plan — in the debt-limit deal, and it explains Democrats’ reluctance to unwind the sequester until Republicans agree to significant new revenues.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=99012