The New York Times ran the story House G.O.P. Leader Signals He’s Open to Obama Tax Cut.

“If the only option I have is to vote for some of those tax reductions, I’ll vote for them,” Mr. Boehner said, in response to questioning by the television show’s host, Bob Schieffer, who pointedly asked if Republicans were willing to hold the tax breaks for most Americans “hostage” to insist on continuing the lower rates for the highest earners.

…

“I think raising taxes in a very weak economy is a really, really bad idea,” Mr. Boehner said, adding, “I think there is a growing chorus on Capitol Hill to extend all of these tax rates.”

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In recent days, Mr. Boehner has called for extending all of the Bush tax cuts for two years and freezing government spending at 2008 levels.

If the Obama administration and the Democratic leaders in the Congress had any sense, they would point out to Mr. Boehner that “raising taxes in a very weak economy is [only] a really, really bad idea”, if you do not plan to redeploy that money to some other kind of stimulus.  Also, “freezing government spending at 2008 levels” is a very, very bad idea in a weak economy.  Cutting taxes and spending is the wrong approach.  Raising some taxes and increasing spending to compensate is a better approach.  They really need to explain why their approach is better.

It seems Boehner could not resist throwing in his usual song and dance,

In addition to the lower marginal income tax rates, aides said that Mr. Boehner would like to continue the current moratorium on the federal estate tax, which is also due to expire on Dec. 31.

The one-year elimination of the estate tax has allowed some extremely wealthy Americans to leave enormous inheritances without paying any federal tax. Republicans have long criticized the estate levy as double taxation because the assets were generally taxed once as income when they were first earned.

The money passed on in an estate may be largely unrealized capital gains that have never been taxed.  The recipient already gets to step up the cost basis of stocks to the current market price on the day of receipt which wipes out the tax liability on the untaxed capital gains.

The Republicans are really good with playing tax hocus pocus to try to convince us that the wealthy bear an unfair tax burden when the exact opposite is true.  The wealthy get unfair tax breaks that the less wealthy don’t get.