Washington Post, please define “efforts”

I'm starting to think the Washington Post just doesn't want readers to understand the tax debate. Here's this morning's article:

[House GOP Leader John] Boehner's comments, made on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” altered the landscape of the tax debate by suggesting that Republicans might not obstruct Democratic efforts to raise taxes on the top earners - a move advocated by Obama and many other Democrats as necessary to lowering the record deficit.

There are no “Democratic efforts to raise taxes on the top earners.” Indeed, no such effort is necessary: If nothing is done, tax rates will increase as scheduled under laws enacted during the Bush administration. Many Democrats are trying to cut taxes for everyone who earns less than $200,000 a year, but they aren't making an “effort” to raise taxes on anyone. Republicans cannot obstruct Democratic efforts to raise taxes on the wealthy, because there is nothing to obstruct. They can, however, obstruct Democratic efforts to cut taxes for the middle class. But I'm sure the GOP is thrilled that their options are being spun this way by the Post.

Later in the same article:

As part of the small-business debate this week, the Senate is to return briefly to the contentious issue of health care. An amendment offered by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) would repeal a portion of the new health-care law that threatens to impose onerous new tax requirements on business owners.

Why is a Washington Post news article -- not an opinion column -- describing provisions of the health care law as “onerous”?