Obama: We Need to Raise Taxes

Of course we do:

Congress’s 12-member deficit-cutting super committee should raise taxes, President Barack Obama said during a press conference on a Hawaiian beach Sunday evening.

“There aren’t any magic beans that you throw on the ground and money grows on trees — you’ve got to do the responsible thing,” he told reporters at the event, which was held at the close of the Pacific-wide APEC trade meeting.

However, he declined to promise that he would veto any committee deal that does not raise taxes.

In Washington, Democratic and Republican negotiators on the 12-member deficit-cutting “super committee” say their panel seems to be deadlocked.

The six Democrats want to raise taxes and boost spending, while promising spending curbs in the future.

The Republicans want to trim the 10-year deficit, and some will accept increased government revenues if there’s a larger economy-boosting revision of the tax-code.

So far the Republicans on the committee have held pretty firm. I fully expected them to cave in on tax hikes by now.

You know that as the deadline draws nigh the media will blame the impasse solely on Republicans and they'll start getting cold feet about the whole thing. We'll get blamed for destroying Medicare, starving the poor, kicking kids out of preschool...the whole schmear. We'll see if they can hang tough for once.