Obama's Tax Issue Campaign Gamble

The Obama campaign team and the President himself are focusing on taxes this week. Why?
Well, maybe because they’re worried that when Mitt Romney’s full campaign team gets rolling, taxes will be in the bag for the Republican candidate.
And, from now until November, the GOP House of representatives can introduce any conservative tax-related bill it wants to - and it will pass the House and go on to the Senate…the Democrat-controlled Senate, where the Democrats will have to vote “no” to it.
There is the problem in a nutshell. Whatever Obama says or does, his plans have to get through the House - and they won’t. And, the flip side is that any “no new taxes” legislation coming out of the GOP House will sound great to the vast majority of American taxpayers but the Democratic Senate will have to vote “no” in order to give Obama wiggle room with his “tax the rich” proposals.
But, even the Democrats in the Senate are skittish about raising taxes. A few days ago, the Buffet Rule that would have forced taxpayers making over $2 Million to pay at least 30% in taxes failed 51-35 in the Senate. Somebody is watching the folks back home and doesn’t like what he’s hearing about Obama’s tax ideas.
The Democrats are trying to turn the tax debate to their favor by arguing that there is a question of fairness in who pays how much in taxes. Polls show that a majority of Americans agree. But when the rubber hits the road, higher taxes are not welcome and that’s why polls also show that that more Americans trust the GOP to handle taxes than they do the Democrats or President Obama. They know that Democrats raise taxes and they hear Obama saying now that it is the right thing to do.
So, we are seeing the first big gamble of the presidential campaign, and it’s Obama who is taking the risk. In raising the tax issue and trying to make it a positive for himself and Democrats, he is bucking more than a century of American distaste for higher taxes (except in the WWII period).
It is far more likely that Mitt Romney will turn any Obama thrust into a parry that wounds the President - “Touché!” as they say in fencing.