Things have gotten pretty awkward between House Minority Leader John Boehner and the GOP ever since Boehner said on Face The Nation this Sunday that he would be willing to say yes to Obama’s plan to extend tax cuts to the middle class, but not the wealthy. Those comments went against the Republican’s rhetorical effort to equate the end of even a single component of the Bush-era tax cuts as a tax increase on small business. One GOP aide was so flustered by Boehner’s short-sightedness, he had to resort to a mixed metaphor, “The problem is, it’s like playing a game of poker. You don’t show the other team your hand.” In the scramble to distance himself from Boehner, who is taking the yeah-I-totally-meant-to-say-that approach, Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, has decided to promise Americans an income tax pony for its birthday, in the form of new legislation that will make sure no one pays higher taxes next year. This forced Obama to be the mean dad. In Virginia yesterday, he said extending cuts to the rich would cost $700 billion, “and we just can’t afford it.”
GOP colleagues seek distance from Boehner on tax issue [CNN]
