Two quotes from last night's SOTU and the Republican Response worth considering...

I found these two statements, the first by President Obama, the second by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who gave the GOP response after the conclusion of the State of The Union address, to be quite telling. More specifically, the response to each...(Bold mine)

But in return, we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes. And my Republican friend Tom Coburn is right: Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires. In fact, if you’re earning a million dollars a year, you shouldn’t get special tax subsidies or deductions. On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families, your taxes shouldn’t go up. You’re the ones struggling with rising costs and stagnant wages. You’re the ones who need relief. 

Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense. 

President Barack Obama, SOTU Address

January 24, 2012

It’s absolutely so that everyone should contribute to our national recovery, including of course the most affluent among us. There are smart ways and dumb ways to do this: the dumb way is to raise rates in a broken, grossly complex tax system, choking off growth without bringing in the revenues we need to meet our debts. The better course is to stop sending the wealthy benefits they do not need, and stop providing them so many tax preferences that distort our economy and do little or nothing to foster growth.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, GOP Response

January 24, 2012

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Keep both in mind as you hear and read the various reactions to the President's speech over the next day or so. They essentially make the same point and suggest the same path forward. Both identify the wealthiest Americans an an opportunity for a correction/adjustment to our Federal tax policy. 

If the Republicans consider Obama using "class warfare" to achieve this goal, how in the world while saying the same thing, aren't they? 

It is a beautiful example of a clumsy hypocrisy...