Republican Congressional leadership has responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) statement that Democrats plan to move a fiscal stimulus package with furious objection to their own imagination. CongressDaily($) quoted House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) yesterday as saying "[Middle-class] anxieties [of the economy] will only be made worse by the higher taxes, irresponsible spending, and bigger government proposed by this Democratic Congress" while Ranking Budget Committee member Paul Ryan (R-WI) shuddered at the notion that "Democrats are banking on enormous tax increases." The fact is that any stimulus package - by definition - will increase the deficit in the short term. A tax increase is simply not in the cards. UPDATE: To clarify: A net tax increase would not be enacted as a stimulus package. However, a temporary tax cut does imply that at some point taxes will increase for whom it had been cut.