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In late May 2011, Vice President Biden exited a meeting on Capitol Hill to declare that he had delivered a “clear” edict in those negotiations over raising the nation’s federal debt limit.
“Revenues are going to have to be in the deal, and everybody knows that,” Biden told reporters, using Democratic parlance for raising taxes on the rich.
Twelve years later, during another debt standoff with a new House GOP majority, President Biden and his allies have not made higher taxes on the rich and powerful a centerpiece of the talks.
Instead, following Republican admonitions that raising taxes is a nonstarter, Democrats have focused their line of attack against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and have made dire predictions of defaulting on the federal debt.
When opening the Senate floor on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused Republicans of “hostage taking” and warned “the consequences would be horrific”…
This article was written by Paul Kane and originally published on www.washingtonpost.com