Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) predicted Thursday that Republicans would fold on taxes in the "fiscal cliff" negotiations.
“The president campaigned on raising taxes and getting rid of the Bush-era tax cuts, and he’s going to get his wish,” DeMint said on "CBS This Morning." “I believe we’re going to be raising taxes not just on the top earners; everyone is going to be paying more taxes in the country, and I believe that’s what the president wants.”
For DeMint, who shocked Washington last week with the
announcement that he would resign his Senate seat in January to become president of the Heritage Foundation, the remarks are the latest thumb in the eye of the House Republican leadership.
The Tea Party favorite has repeatedly expressed a lack of confidence in how Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is handling talks with the White House.
After announcing his resignation last Thursday, DeMint went on the Rush Limbaugh radio show and joked about deposing Boehner from his position as Speaker. Shortly after, he went on CNN to deliver another parting shot.
“I’m not with Boehner,” DeMint said on CNN’s "The Situation Room." “This government doesn’t need any more money; this country needs less government.”
Boehner, though, has publicly said that while Republicans are open to $800 billion in new tax revenues, they will not accept Obama's push to raise tax rates on the top 2 percent of income earners.
DeMint suggested that Obama's negotiating stance was designed to take the nation over the cliff.
“The president’s plan is clearly not a proposal, not a solution; it will fund the government for a few days. We all realize it’s a political trophy, it’s not a solution,” he continued. “But the president’s been campaigning against these tax rates for a long time and he’ll probably eventually get his tax increases one way or another.”
Although Obama campaigned on his tax proposals, DeMint argued Thursday that the parties should have struck a deal before the election so the American people could have voted on something concrete.
“We should’ve done it before the election,” he said. “We should not have gone home until the problem was solved and people could see how we handled it here so they would know how to vote at the election.
"I’ve been a businessman for most of my life and I know the damage that this uncertainty has already done, and you combine that with the implementation of ObamaCare and those taxes, I think you’re already going to see some downturn in our economy because of what’s going on here," DeMint continued. "We can’t fix it Christmas Eve and expect it all to bounce back in January.”
