Sign the petition here.

Since this deal was announced I’ve been arguing against it, noting that in the wake of a massive electoral victory spurred on by the Tea Partiers and their message of fiscal responsibility and accountability, it makes little sense to be happy with the status quo on most tax rates, a tax hike of 35% on certain estates upon death, and an additional $200-$300 billion in unfunded government spending, be it through an extension of unemployment benefits or government payouts to those who don’t pay federal income tax in the guise of “tax credits.”

By allowing the Democrats to control the terms of this debate, the establishment GOP has not only been duped into thinking that such a one-sided “compromise” is a satisfactory deal — but they’ve allowed the President and Democrats to position themselves to run again on the class warfare message in 2012, when we’ll hear a more carefully crafted campaign aimed at “millionaires” (a cutoff point for total assets that performed well in focus groups aimed at pinpointing who Americans are willing to steal from, if they can be assured it won’t be framed as theft); too, they’ve made it so that unemployment payments will again near expiration around the holiday season, creating yet another opportunity for the Democrats to paint fiscal conservatives and classical liberals as spat-wearing, stoogie-chomping Scrooges.

With the GOP set to take over control of the House (and have a more manageable split in the Senate) come January, there is no need to make this deal. If we don’t begin standing on principle now, then when? What will it take?

This deal sends a message: it will be business as usual in Washington and within the GOP. And that message is only strengthened by the recommendation of the chairs for both the appropriations committee and the committee that will oversee the EPA.

Don’t be fooled by the howls of the socialists (or “progressives”) upset at Obama’s necessarily incrementalist approach to “transformation”; listen to Obama himself, who chided those people for their sanctimony while trying desperately to make them see what he was doing was in fact a step in the right direction that should be supported by all the true believers. For once, he was upset that his side didn’t understand the political calculation — that they weren’t savvy enough to understand his genius.

His “pragmatism” is very calculated. And we must remember that if Obama is offering this deal, there’s a reason. And it isn’t that he cares about the middle class, or that he’s itching to compromise.

Be the party of no.

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update: “Democrats Signal Tax Deal Will Pass House”:

“We’re not going to hold this up at the end of the day,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the incoming ranking member of the House Budget Committee and an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said twice on Fox News Sunday.

Van Hollen said Democrats plan to put “to the test” the question of whether Republicans will block tax cuts for all Americans to protect cuts for top income brackets. But he said Democrats would allow the tax deal to become law if the alternative was allowing income tax rates to rise for all Americans.

“There will be an opportunity for the House to work its will,” Van Hollen said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., predicted on CNN’s State of the Union that a bill containing the White House deal will pass, “but not with my vote.”

Incoming House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., meanwhile held the line, saying that if Democrats block the bill, Republicans will use their majority next year to pass it in current form.

“That will be the first thing we do,” Ryan said.

The agreement, reached by the White House with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would extend all Bush-era tax cuts for two years and give Republicans their preferred estate tax rate while extending unemployment benefits for 13 months and creating a temporary payroll tax holiday.

Glorious news.