Its pretty dumb. They are a one trick pony. Cut taxes no matter what. Don't raise taxes, let temporary cuts expire, or compromise on anything. Even if you get more than you give. This is the GOP now. Then throw in the rampant unchecked spending of the Bush admin with the severe hypocrisy of the republican congress on debt. "deficits don't matter" -Cheney . I seriously just can't stand 99.9% of republicans in congress. A ton of their (basically religious beliefs) in how the economy works is based on very complex systems with a ton of variables. They basically think that no matter what if they just lower taxes that everything will be awesome. If they aren't great, then lower them more. There is a total breakdown in the use of logic on almost all issues. Its all based on religious beliefs that evertime you do X then Y happens. No matter what A-W is. Everything is black or white, there is no middle ON ANYTHING. And yes, the democrats have compromised on lots of things. They already pushed me away once. If they screw this up I don't know when I could support the party again.
I don't see them as so much entrenched in dogma as they simply view tax increases as punitive, because the message from the left has been tax increases are punitive. When the Chief Executive is touting tax cuts as "spreading the money around", or "they already make enough" that's received as a punitive message.
As we've uncovered in some other threads, a higher tax environment is considered hostile to business and commerce and it's proven it moves business to safer tax havens.
I simply don't know the right answer to making tax increases palatable to everyone other than raising them by a like percentage on everyone. I think most wealthier Americans are of the view that if they will get something in return for higher taxes, like less overall net spending and more responsible spending, and they are not the only ones shouldering the increased burden, they might get vocal in supporting tax increases.