The issue of taxes has long bedeviled Democratic candidates, but in 2008, Mr. Obama took control of it. He campaigned hard on tax cuts for the middle class, savaged as a tax increase Republican Sen. John McCain's proposal to subject the value of health-insurance benefits to income taxation, and convinced most Americans they would be unaffected even as he said he would allow taxes to rise on the rich.
But as Democrats who served in Congress in 1994 will attest, the game changes when abstractions on taxing the rich turn to reality. President Bill Clinton's 1993 deficit-reduction plan largely focused tax increases on the rich, but the collateral damage on Democrats was broad. And nobody wants to be the next Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, the suburban Philadelphia House freshman who cast the deciding vote on the Clinton budget, only to be swept from office the next year.
"I never should have been asked to take that vote, ever," said Ms. Margolies-Mezvinsky, who now runs Women's Campaign International, a Philadelphia-based group with a mission to empower women politically.
Since the 1994 GOP sweep, districts like Ms. Margolies-Mezvinsky's have swung back to the Democrats. For 14 years, Republican Tom Davis represented most of Northern Virginia's Fairfax and Prince William counties. Now, Fairfax and Prince William belong to Mr. Connolly. Rep. John Hall took over the Hudson River Valley suburbs of New York after defeating veteran Republican Sue Kelly in 2006.
Boulder's Mr. Polis authored a letter on Friday, signed by 21 freshmen and one sophomore, Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire, opposing the surtaxes. "Especially in a recession, we need to make sure not to kill the goose that will lay the golden eggs of our recovery," they declared.
For now, most freshmen aren't saying how they will vote on the House health-care bill. Mr. McMahon, whose New York district also includes parts of Brooklyn, said there is no open revolt, but there have been two meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and there was the White House meeting Friday with Messrs. Obama and Emanuel. Taxes dominated what Mr. Connolly described as a cordial but inconclusive discussion.
"I spend all my time here making the case that the profile of the rich doesn't stand in my district," Mr. McMahon said. "People feel that they're getting hit from all sides."
Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com |
