In recent decades, as the GOP started to define itself as an anti-tax party, Republicans adopted a straightforward pledge: They would oppose any tax increases on anyone, at any time, by any amount, for any reason. Period. Full stop.

But as it turns out, there are some exceptions to the party’s iron-clad rule — at least sort of. The Wall Street Journal reported on one of the underappreciated elements of the GOP’s far-right debt ceiling legislation, which was narrowly approved last week.

The bill, which passed in the GOP-controlled House and won’t survive the Democratic-led Senate, would repeal clean-energy tax credits that Congress created last year. The changes would shrink breaks for wind energy, solar power, hydrogen and electric vehicles, effectively raising taxes on some manufacturers, car buyers and others.

To be sure, Republicans don’t like to see the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act this way, but the progressive bill included what are effectively tax breaks intended to advance clean-energy goals.

And if we’re having a debate by GOP rules, the elimination of a tax break is — or at least should be considered — a tax hike.

Indeed, in this instance, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the Republicans’ so-called Limit, Save, Grow Act — better known as the GOP’s debt ceiling hostage note — would have the practical effect of raising taxes by more than $300 billion over the course of the next decade.

Some Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, conceded that their party’s bill would, in a technical sense, include tax increases. But as the Journal’s report added, key GOP leaders have decided to work around the problem by pretending it doesn’t exist.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, for example, released a letter he sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, declaring his belief that the tax hikes shouldn’t be seen as actual tax hikes, the CBO’s findings notwithstanding.

Soon after, the House speaker endorsed Smith’s conclusion. “Rest assured,” the Californian wrote to his Missouri, “I will continue to hold the position that House Republicans will not support a tax increase as part of any bill presented to the President to address our spending problem and the debt limit.”

I especially appreciated the use of the phrase “hold the position.” In other words, the evidence suggests House Republicans just voted to raise taxes, but if party’s leaders “hold the position” that they didn’t, then the problem simply evaporates.

Other GOP lawmakers, meanwhile, have concluded that they just don’t much care either way.

“I really don’t care what the CBO score is,” Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson of Georgia told the Journal. “What I care about is doing the right thing.”

Or put another way, here’s what the congressman effectively believes: “Taxes, schmaxes. What matters is undoing the administration’s advances on clean energy.”