Republicans Soften Their Stance On Taxes, Except Not

The political landscape in the US has seen a profound shift among the liberal set, with a focus on social issues shifting in favor of setting economic disparities in the sights of the left's political machine.  This includes yours truly-- I've been sacrificing blogging about gay shit in order to focus on the Occupy Wall Street/ Occupy Seattle movement.  

Perhaps Republicans and the right as a whole is starting to feel the heat, as they now are at least attempting to make an appearance of softening their "no new taxes" stance.  The reality is, of course, that if we do not increase taxes (to include the rich, who pay almost none by comparison to the poor and middle classes), much needed programs like education will feel the pinch.  Maybe the Occupy Wall Street movement has made that plain, as Congressional Republicans have put an offer on the table that would increase tax revenue by as much as $300 billion.

Some, however, are not best pleased with the new plan:

Congressional Republicans have for the first time retreated from their hard-line stance against new taxes, offering to raise federal tax collections by nearly $300 billion over the next decade as part of a plan to tame the national debt. 

But Democrats rejected the offer Tuesday — along with the notion that Republicans had made a significant concession that could end the long-standing political impasse — leaving a special debt-reduction committee far from compromise with less than two weeks until its Thanksgiving deadline.

Democrats said the tax increases in the GOP offer would be dwarfed by major new tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest households, including a reduction in the top income tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent.

In plain terms: Republicans are happy to increase taxes to meet our growing debt!  Uh, it's just that it's the poor and middle classes who will have to pay those increased taxes.  Not the rich!  No, we're going to cut their taxes even further.  

Nice try, guys.