QUAKE CITY

That’s the conservative line: not a penny of higher taxes, even in return for billions in lower spending. Again, this ignores the basic definitional truth that spending levels, not tax levels, define the size of government. Money that has been spent has been taxed. Holding out against tax hike is only to delay taxation, not to avert it. It’s insane that conservative view a cut spending and raise taxes deal as a compromise at all, let alone an unacceptable one. Oh, sure, Republicans would love to reduce the deficit entirely through spending cuts. But they have no remotely plausible path to achieving this goal. The only times Republicans have ever actually cut entitlement spending have occurred when Democrats gave them cover to do so, and Democrats will only do so as part of a deal that includes tax hikes and some measure of shared sacrifice.