and to the floor for a vote. Controlling the House can give even a small minority of Republicans a sort of
legislation veto using that control.

These assholes are beyond redemption. They would rather see the country disintegrate than see progressive values flourish. They are and will always be the party of the ultra rich. Defending the oligarchy is ingrained in their conservative values.

Their far right wing constituents want tax cuts for themselves. The GOP can't vote against those.

This is why Obama extended the Bush tax cuts to the end of 2012.

If he let them all expire earlier, the media would have killed him for letting taxes go up on those under 250k.

So he kept his promise to not increase those, and then DELAYED his promise to end the bush tax cuts for those over 250k.

Now, Obama gets to keep both promises.

Obama thinks long term.

I am right is that the strategy I describe would indicate that Obama knows that the deficit, while important, was not the primary issue to deal with now.

Extending the Bush tax cuts for 2 years added to the deficit. But our economic issue was jobs, not deficit. And so leaving the cuts in place allowed the middle income folks to keep their cuts, and the middle SPENDS that money. The rich don't so their cut simply adds to the deficit.

In other words, you'd prefer to get rid of the top end cuts, but if they remained for a while, its not as bad as taking money out of the pocket of the middle class.

The chess analogy gets used and abused around here, but as a chess player, I see Obama's extension of those cuts a few years back as a strategic defensive move. Many times in chess, a great move is a defensive move, but one in which a future attack is strengthened. So your bishop "retreats" backwards across the board, but it ends up on a square that, once other pieces move, and they will move, cuts deep into the opposing defenses.

I trust Obama on this. For all the attacks on the guy, I think he always tries to find the most effective, and pragmatic path forward.