Leading conservatives blasted a controversial new House Republican proposal that breaks with years of GOP orthodoxy by calling for more taxes to be paid by wealthier Americans as part of a broader deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.
But in a sign of how politically treacherous and awkward the offer has become, top Senate Republicans – many of them conservatives – withheld harsh criticism of the plan even as they refused to embrace it.
In fact, despite their general misgivings about approving tax increases, they gently nudged negotiations forward, in apparent recognition that any final agreement would include higher taxes at least in some form – as President Barack Obama demands.
