"U.S. tax rates are too high for the world we must compete in. The tax burden – federal, state, local, together – is too heavy. We need to cut tax rates to free up our private and productive sector and pull this economy out of the ditch."

This core conviction holds the party together.

Yet today the leadership is about to abandon this conviction to sign on to higher tax rates or revenues, while the economy is nearing stall speed. Yet, two years ago, President Obama himself extended the Bush tax cuts because, he said, you do not raise taxes in a recovering economy.

Why are Republicans negotiating this capitulation?