House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) on 60 Minutes
defends the GOP's intransigence on taxes by citing Ronald Reagan's refusal to raise taxes ... even though Reagan actually did raise taxes:
In an exchange with Lesley Stahl that was broadcast on CBS on New Year’s Day, Mr. Cantor explained the difference between compromising and cooperation, noting that cooperation meant moving forward on fiscal policies Democrats and Republicans could agree upon, while compromising meant sacrificing core principles. Mr. Cantor pointed to Mr. Reagan as a leader who “never compromised his principles.”
Ms. Stahl noted that Mr. Reagan “also raised taxes.” But as Mr. Cantor moved into his response, adding that Mr. Reagan had also been a tax cutter, his spokesman, Brad Dayspring, interrupted off camera with: “That’s not true, and I don’t want to let that stand.”
When asked, Mr. Cantor’s office explained that the remark referred to the cumulative effect of Mr. Reagan’s tax policies, pointing out that he cut taxes more than he raised them, and that Mr. Reagan expressed regret making tax deals with Democrats because the spending cuts they agreed to never materialized.
The problem here is that Cantor is using one standard for President Reagan and a completely different one for today's Republican Party.
President Reagan, he says, didn't raise taxes because the net effect of Reagan's tax policies was to lower the cumulative tax rate. In other words, Reagan's big tax cut offset the smaller tax hikes—so the smaller tax hikes don't really count. But if that's really what Eric Cantor believes, then Republicans in Congress should be able to undo some of the Bush tax cuts—as long as the cumulative tax rate is still lower than it was before the Bush tax cuts.
Of course, Eric Cantor says undoing even some of the Bush tax cuts would be a tax hike. He's right. But when Reagan undid some of his 1981 tax cuts, that was a tax hike, too. And the fact that Eric Cantor refuses to even considering doing what Reagan did is yet another reminder of just how unreasonable—and extreme—today's Republican Party has become.