David Horsey: "For House Republicans, protecting the wealthy trumps deficit reduction" (with cartoon)

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David Horsey (SeattlePI.com:

For some people, life is good.

CEO salaries are skyrocketing. Oil companies are flush. Wall Street financiers are raking in millions. And they sleep contentedly knowing House Republicans won’t make them chip in to help solve America’s debt crisis.

In his press conference this week, President Obama decried Republicans’ refusal to eliminate tax breaks for billionaires as part of a budget-cutting deal:

“We’ve got to make some tough choices here if we want to reduce our deficit. And if we choose to keep those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, if we choose to keep a tax break for corporate jet owners, if we choose to keep tax breaks for oil and gas companies that are making hundreds of billions of dollars, then that means we’ve got to cut some kids off from getting a college scholarship. That means we’ve got to stop funding certain grants for medical research. That means that food safety may be compromised.”

House Republicans embrace their anti-tax dogma with fanatic zeal, but can such fealty to the super rich truly be a smart political tactic at a time when life is not nearly so good for the rest of us?