Conservatives challenge GOP leadership on fiscal cliff

Actually, many of us would like to throw them over it, along with all the statists they enable...politically speaking, of course. Anyhoo...

Here's the bottom line: Anything that the Speaker/Leader/Whip team come up with abandons core principles (both Republican and conservative, not to mention constitutional), while gaining very little, if anything, for the country and its people. And conservatives are speaking out.

Jim DeMint: "Speaker Boehner's $800 billion tax hike will destroy American jobs and allow politicians in Washington to spend even more, while not reducing our $16 trillion debt by a single penny. This isn't rocket science. Everyone knows that when you take money out of the economy, it destroys jobs, and everyone knows that when you give politicians more money, they spend it. This is why Republicans must oppose tax increases and insist on real spending reductions that shrink the size of government and allow Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money."

HeritageFoundation: "The House Republican leadership has offered a substantive counteroffer to President Obama’s frivolous fiscal cliff proposal of last week. At first blush, it appears little more than categorical, pre-emptive capitulation. ... Much can and likely will come out in the days ahead clarifying what a few figures and labels on a single sheet of paper mean. One can only hope the additional clarity substantially improves the picture. However, it is very difficult to be hopeful. ...the Republican counteroffer, to the extent it can be interpreted from the hazy details now available, is a dud. It is utterly unacceptable. It is bad policy, bad economics, and, if we may say so, highly questionable as a negotiating tactic."

Also, the advocacy group Let Freedom Ring has released an open letter signed by more than 100 prominent conservative activists warning House Republicans that they would not receive support in the future if they "cave" during negotiations.

Some have said that Obama seeks to destroy the Republican Party. I'd very much agree with that sentiment...but as the nation appears to be collapsing from within, the case might also be made that the Republican Party with such feckless leadership as Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy is experiencing a similar effect. And with the latest move of knocking conservatives off of House committees, these stooges may in fact be doing more damage than Obama could otherwise hope for.

ADDENDUM: Levin read an NRO piece by John Fund that reiterates conservatives' warnings: "If Republicans sign on to a deal that raises taxes, they risk an open break with large portions of their base."