Some Republican governors are softening on the party’s hard-line toward tax increases for the wealthy, suggesting that GOP congressmen at least be open to rate hikes in exchange for a comprehensive fiscal agreement on taxes and entitlements.
“The people have spoken, I think we’re going to have to be [flexible] now,” said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, when asked if his party would now have to be open to taxes on the highest earners. “Elections do have consequences. The president campaigned on that.”
McDonnell, the outgoing head of the Republican Governors Association, made clear that raising taxes isn’t his first choice. But he said that the political reality of a Democratic president and Democratic Senate makes it unlikely that a grand bargain can be struck without some compromise on raising revenues.
“As a piece of an overall package with tax reform that is more comprehensive, I think it’s something that absolutely has got to be discussed,” he said of tax hikes for the wealthy in an interview at the traditional post-election GOP governors’ conference here. “We’re in deep, deep trouble in America right now and I think with the president in power there’s no way to get a budget solution that’s spending cuts only.”
