by Patrick Appel
Like Ezra Klein, Douthat recognizes that taxes will go up. But he suspects Republicans would rather let the Bush tax cuts expire, and get to hammer Democrats for it, than participate in a grand bargin with smaller tax increases:
If you’re a House Republican, the best kind of tax increase is obviously no tax increase at all. But the second-best kind of tax increase isn’t necessarily the sort of revenue-raising reform that a lot of conservative wonks would swallow hard and support. It’s just any tax increase that they don’t have to vote for themselves.
The Dish 