Rep. Mac Thornberry isn't ruling out tax hikes as part of a deal to avert sequestration. POLITICO Pro Increase taxes to stop defense cuts?

The new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is taking a bold stand for a Republican and fifth-generation Texan who represents one of the most conservative districts in the country: He’s not ruling out tax hikes as part of a deal to avert sequestration.

Rep. Mac Thornberry isn’t advocating higher taxes — he’s just acknowledging the reality that President Barack Obama will demand some new revenues be paired with entitlement cuts championed by Republicans as part of any deal to avert the automatic spending cuts set to return next fiscal year.


“I’m pretty much open to any solution that would fix sequestration,” Thornberry said in a wide-ranging interview, making clear he believes “the taxpayers of this country have been taxed enough” but that a compromise could be necessary to spare the military further budget pain.

“This is not about my preferences,” he said. “This is about having the bigger, longer conversations about how we get from here to here even though I can’t tell you that road map at this moment.”

Thornberry also said the issue of sequestration was too big for his committee to solve but that Armed Services members have a responsibility to make clear to other lawmakers the damage the cuts would do to the military.

“Sixty-three members, if you count all the Democrats, are not going to be able to solve sequestration,” he said. “What we’ve got to do a better job of is thinking about what sorts of facts, information, arguments would be persuasive to our colleagues who may not live in this world every day.”