Now that ice is broken, maybe next Obama deal with Republicans will come easier

By Steven Pearlstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Well, it's not exactly how I would have done it.

President Obama deserves credit for cutting a tax-cum-stimulus deal with Republican leaders that involved distasteful concessions on both sides. That's the difference between "finding common ground," which is easy, and real "compromise," which is harder and had fallen out of fashion. Now that the ice has been broken, maybe the next compromise will come a little easier.

It's also a good sign that the president has finally realized that the only way he is going to succeed is to force congressional Democrats to follow his lead rather than the other way around. If he'd done that earlier in his presidency, he wouldn't have found himself with his back against the wall after last month's drubbing at the polls. It's not just okay if some liberal Democrats in Congress feel they have to vote against a deal that requires many Republican votes for passage - it's actually a good thing. It means the president finally understands the difference between leading the country and leading his party.

What I do have a serious problem with, however, is the substance of the deal and the political trap he fell into before negotiating it.

(More here.)

TM Comment:

Pearlstein misses two points. First, the tax cut package will come up for renewal during a presidential election year, with Republicans controlling the House. You can be sure they will try to make the high-end tax cuts permanent. Unless Obama gets a spine transplant in the near future, you can count on him caving.

Second, the contours of this deal and the huge additional deficit it will create -- maybe $900 billion -- will make deficit reduction even harder, and put more pressure on Democrats to cut Medicare and SS. This has been the goal of the Grover Norquist wing of the Republican Party all along. So we are seeing a two-stage "cave" by Obama followed by a full-scale assault on Medicare and SS.

Why is that smart politics for a Democrat?