You might be disappointed to read in the latest Bloomberg Businessweek that Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn is willing to accept some tax hikes (or the more euphemistic “revenue increases”) to help address the federal government’s debt problem.
But if the following paragraph is accurate, you might not have to worry about Coburn voting for a tax hike any time soon:
Coburn says there’s little chance of getting Republicans to go along with such a compromise unless Democrats are willing to make aggressive cuts in government spending. So far, he says, he hasn’t seen it. Until recently he was one of three Republican members of a bipartisan group, known as the Gang of Six, working on a proposal to shave some $3.8 trillion off the debt through cuts to entitlements and tax increases. He left last month, saying Democrats weren’t willing to cut enough from Medicare and other programs. Coburn says he can’t blame his colleagues for being wary of any deal that doesn’t reduce the size of the government. “If you vote to raise this debt limit and haven’t fixed the problem,” he says, “I think you’re history.”
