Because Obama saved their asses.
They knew if the Democrats had held firm, the Republicans would have had to either:
a. Horrifically piss off 90% of the US
b. Capitulate themselves
They learned the lesson from the 1995 government shutdown that nuked Gingrich – don’t go to the mat when the vast majority of Americans are against your position.
When Obama offered to capitulate for them, they thanked their lucky stars. They have been freed from making an awful choice.
Please share widely!
in an op-ed by David Freddoso (For GOP, tax deal is win-win) in the Washington Examiner, not exactly a left-leaning paper.
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…compared to Democratic sullenness should tell us all we need to know about who came out better in this bargain.
90% of Americans will never agree on anything and I highly doubt 90% of them agree with Obamas idea in this situation.
Furthermore since 89% of all statistics are made up on the spot I’m going to call shenanigans on your math. As an aside, Unemployment Insurance currently runs for 99 weeks. Does it need to go further than that? Really?
The agreement to extend Unemployment Insurance does not extend it past 99 weeks. The people who lost their jobs at the beginning of the Great Recession and have exhausted their 99 weeks of benefits are now totally out of luck and on their own.
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p>What the agreement does is treat people who lost their jobs in the middle of the Great Recession, say, 52 weeks ago, the same way as those who lost their jobs earlier. Without this agreement, those people would also be totally out of luck and on their own.
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If the tax cuts had expired each side would have blamed the other. The public would have blamed both parties – but one party would have been harmed more than another. It all would depend on who is better at controlling the message.
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p>Democrats are facing a dire political problem – Republican control of the House in less than a month. That means that if they stuck to their guns they would be forced to accept a worse deal after January 1.
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p>One could imagine a Republican congress rushing through a restoration of the tax cuts after Jan 1st and the story being that the Republicans repealed a Democratic tax hike.
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p>Election have consequences – Democrats may not be happy with the current compromise but its the best they are going to get given their weakened position.
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p>Besides – D’s are only “capitulating” for 2 years. They get another chance to negotiate this in 2 years when there are fresh elections and their position may be stronger.
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p>Both Democrats and Republicans see this tax debate as a winner for them and so they are both happy to see the debate pushed ahead to the next election cycle.
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p>I think they may have learned something also from the Health Care debate – they rammed health care through – and it is a major victory for them – but the political cost was huge. A big part of the Republican resurgence was unhappiness with the health care bill.
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No reason not to do the same now other than fear or willful desire to get the negotiated outcome. As in 1995, public opinion is crystal clear.
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p>As to the 2-year argument: the Dems will be in a better spot in two years? Inconceivable.
is that I can’t depend on politicians. Democrats frittered away the summer and let the Republicans demonize any kind of meaningful health care insurance reform. Republicans were unhappy because they didn’t get all of what they wanted which is pretty much their definition of compromise.