The
fiscal cliff talks pick up again in the White House where they left off when
the Tea Party subverted Barack Obama’s Grand Bargain with John Boehner, with
the same supporting cast (McConnell, Reid and Pelosi) and not the slightest
trace of any attitude change resulting from the Election.
If
anything, it is Democrats who are wary about concessions by the President (who
won) rather than followers of Paul Ryan (who lost).
Some,
reports say, worry about “letting Obama and his senior advisers hash out a deal
with Boehner on their own. They remember the steep cuts he reportedly agreed to
in 2011 and the deal he struck with McConnell in December of 2010 to extend virtually
all the Bush-era tax rates.”
Déjà
vu is on the menu unless the President, who never has to face voters again, girds
his loins for history and goes to the mat with GOP intransigence, marshaling public
opinion behind him.
Eric
Cantor decided to spare Gen. Petraeus when he learned of his vulnerability from
the FBI. Will he be as generous to the President?
Want
to bet?
Update:
In a sideshow, Harry Reid is now picking a fight with Boehner over the timing
of a deal.
The
Speaker wants to wait until 2013 to get it done, but the Senate Majority Leader
is eager to keep Democratic election momentum going.
“There
is no more ‘let’s do it some other time.’ We’re going to do it now,” he tells a
press conference. “We feel very comfortable with each other and this isn’t
something we’re going to wait until the last day of December to get done.”
Of
course, the last thing voters would want is to make their champions in Congress
uncomfortable.
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