GOP: No higher taxes and no closing of loopholes without more tax cuts

In a marked shift, Republicans are now willing to close some tax loopholes as part of a final deal to raise the nation’s legal borrowing limit, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday.

But Cantor said that raising taxes was still off limits in negotiations to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline.

“If the president wants to talk loopholes, we’ll be glad to talk loopholes,” Cantor said at his weekly roundtable with reporters. “We’ve said all along that preferences in the code aren’t something that helps economic growth overall. But listen, we’re not for any proposal that increases taxes, and any type of discussion should be coupled with offsetting tax cuts somewhere else.”

Republicans have rebuffed Democrats’ calls for any comprehensive deficit-reduction package to close tax loopholes such as those for corporate jet owners and oil and gas companies. Such measures, GOP leaders have said, should be considered only as part of a comprehensive tax-reform effort.

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This country is in deep trouble.  We have one of the most left wing president since LBJ and the Republican Party is increasingly drifting into the political la-la land dominated by birthers, Grover Norquist and people who dream of turning the clock back to 1787 if not the old Articles of Confederation.  We urgently needs a credible opposition party with at least one foot planted in the real world.  And clearly the GOP is not it.