- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 75,495
- Reaction score
- 39,819
- Location
- USofA
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
That's fine, but very few people's opinions are going to be swayed about tax policy based on what Obama or congressional Democrats said or did a couple years ago.
that is correct - this merely negates the attempted "perception" victory by demonstrating that Democrats are not acting in what they perceive to be the nations' best interests, but rather in what they perceive to be their political best interests.
The fact remains that Republicans are on the losing end of a very powerful soundbite. Most people simply think that the wealthy should pay more in taxes, and therefore "the Republicans are holding your tax rates hostage" is more effective than the analogous counterattack. The GOP will almost certainly come out looking worse than the Democrats from any end-of-year scuffle over tax rates...and if Obama is reelected they will lose the substantive battle too, since the Democrats don't have to do anything in order for the tax cuts for the rich to expire.
I think you are overestimating the salience of this. People care alot more about growth than tax rates, which is why they trust Romney more on economic issues.