Do Not Ask What Good We Do, by Robert Draper: on Tax Reform

Eric Cantor: Raise debt ceiling instead of tax revenue increase

During the very first meeting, Biden made clear that Obama would only sign on to a deal that included revenue increases. Cantor did not object. Biden repeated publicly the stipulation that "revenues are gonna have to be in the deal," while Cantor publicly said the opposite: "Tax increases are not going to be something we're going to support in the House."

Joe Biden: Tax revenue increases must be part of budget deal

During the very first meeting, Biden made clear that Obama would only sign on to a deal that included revenue increases. Cantor did not object. Biden repeated publicly the stipulation that "revenues are gonna have to be in the deal," while Cantor publicly said the opposite: "Tax increases are not going to be something we're going to support in the House."

Tim Geithner: Purpose of increasing taxes is to reduce the deficit

"They're 3% of your small business owners," Geithner could not resist correcting.

Countering with her own favorite data point, she replied, "64% of jobs created in this country are from small businesses."

The secretary agreed. But, he said, the high deficits necessitated an increase in revenue. Otherwise, Geithner said, "I'll have to go out & borrow another trillion dollars over the next 10 years to finance those tax benefits for the top 2%. I don't think I can justify doing that. And if we were to cut spending by that magnitude to do it, you'd be putting a huge additional burden on the economy--probably a greater net economic impact than that modest change in revenue."