Cantor Not Alone in Call for 5 Percent Jobless Ceiling on Tax Hikes

Earlier this week, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) told Fox News that he doesn’t support a tax hike to pay for the Afghanistan war until the nation’s jobless rate drops below 5 percent.

I think we should pay for this war, but we should pay for it after the unemployment rate is down below 5 percent. We should adopt the statutes now so that these taxes become operative then. But you’ve got to have a good fiscal policy as well as a good policy to fight the global war on terror.

If that figure sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) yesterday set the same conditional jobless threshold for any tax hikes.

There’s a key distinction to be made here: Cantor, as Dave pointed out yesterday, doesn’t support tax hikes in any context, making his call for the 5 percent threshold that much more disingenuous. Sherman, on the other hand, does support the war surtax, just not in the middle of an employment crisis.

Of course, with the jobless rate currently at 10.2 percent (and rising), it will likely be years before the 5 percent figure is realized.