Ezra Klein - "On the sequester, the American people ‘moved the goalposts’"

[karynnj]

3. Agree and the supercommittee had to work with a base line that ASSUMED that all

the Bush tax cuts expired. So, it is ridiculous to claim that because the Republicans "let" some of the tax cuts expire - or more correctly, allowed the Democrats to make some of the tax cuts permanent - that that means no more tax increases.

The Republicans on the committee wanted to make the tax cuts permanent AND meet the goal they had to meet by spending cuts that added the two together. They wanted no real tax increases - and that is why the committee failed.