As Congress returns to Washington this week, everybody's talking about the so-called "fiscal cliff," a variety of various tax and spending decisions that must be settled in some fashion or another before the end of the year.
The Bush-era tax cuts have received the most attention. Passed in 2001, they were supposed to run out in 2010. But that changed after President Obama and the Democrats, chastened by a Republican shellacking in the 2010 off-year elections, opted to extend the cuts until the end of 2012, tacking $858 billion onto the deficit.
Now Obama and his supporters say his victory (as well as exit polling) shows that the public supports his decision to raise the tax rates back to where they were pre-2001 for everyone except those making less than $250,000 a year. Republicans have disagreed, but on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol said the GOP should consider allowing tax cuts to expire for incomes above $1 million, "half of whom voted Democratic."
"The leadership of the Republican Party and the leadership of the conservative movement has to pull back, let people float new ideas. Let's have a serious debate," Kristol said on "Fox News Sunday." "Don't scream and yell if one person says 'You know what? It won't kill the country if we 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 $1 million," Kristol said. "Really? The Republican Party is going to fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic and half of whom live in Hollywood?"
