Heading for the Cliff

Obama's Famous Tax 'Victory'
Excerpt:

Let us assume that Mr. Obama is correct in his bet that the GOP will prove more responsible than he is and won't cliff-dive. The president's recent baiting of Republicans—his unreasonable offers, his public campaign to belittle them, his refusal to negotiate—has not put them in a generous mood. If Republicans have to fold on the top tax rates, it's a decent bet they will do only that—and nothing more. .

.. Come February, Mr. Boehner will remind the president of his formula of $1 in spending cuts for $1 in a debt-ceiling hike. He will likely present Mr. Obama with the choice of doing serious entitlement reform that will get the debt-ceiling monkey off his back for a notable period of his presidency, or of monthly debt-ceiling fights. The latter has the potential to derail a second term. No question, the Republicans would suffer a bitter defeat if top marginal income-tax rates rise. Then again, if those rates are going up anyway—either because we go off the cliff or because Mr. Obama maneuvers them into a panicked, last-minute deal—the rational GOP response is to instead choose a deliberate course that mitigates its own political damage, and lands some blows. This is the corner our intransigent president has backed Republicans into. So, that Obama "victory": On Jan. 1, the president gets to give a news conference gloating over his tax win. He then faces four years and 20 days of a presidency marked by his ownership of a faltering economy, a spiraling debt problem, automatic sequester cuts, no prospect of further spending or tax revenue, and a debt-ceiling time bomb. If that's this president's idea of "victory," maybe it's what he deserves.

Comment: The "hoods" in DC don't care about our cars! (Famous scene from Rebel without a Cause)