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Boehner walks away from $1 trillion in tax increases; Update: WH “upped the ante on taxes,” backed off entitlement reform - HotAir
...Tellingly, the White House rushed to assure people that the grand compromise wasn’t dead yet... The rapid response at the White House shows the weakness of Obama’s position...
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The Rose Garden collapse - Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post
...The White House dished out the spin that suddenly the Tea Party crowd had nixed a deal. In reality, the White House had upped the ante on taxes. A Republican House aide told me that the White House “started to backpedal on entitlement reforms too.” He explained, “They [the White House] had started to go back on some of the Medicare and Medicaid reforms they had previously said they were ok with.” In other words, either the White House never intended to present a viable grand bargain, or, if Obama did, the left got to him....
Unfortunately for the administration, both the Republicans in Congress and the country at large aren’t buying this formula. They know the problem is out-of-control spending. The know that hiking taxes while the job market deteriorates is ludicrous. Now all that remains is for Republicans to craft a deal that adheres to those principles.
