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If I could offer advice to Boehner and the GOP leadership in the House. First of all, I feel your pain. Obama is in a far superior negotiating position. Obama holds at least three aces in his hand:

Ace #1 The GWB tax rates expire on Jan 1. Very dumb to have made them temporary to begin with.

Ace #2 Obama was re-elected and retains a significant amount of political capital which he would never waste.

Ace #3 The Dems retained and increased their control of the Senate. Anything good coming out of Boehner’s House is DOA when it arrives to the Senate.

Obama holds other cards in his hand as well including the slavish devotion of the news media to do his bidding and public opinion polls showing support for higher taxes on the “wealthy”.

Fact is Obama doesn’t have a care in the world. Deadlines mean NOTHING to him. The only date marked on his calender is Jan 20, 2017, the date he leaves office. Obama doesn’t give a rat’s behind if ALL of the GWB tax rates expires. Nor will he shed a tear if the military takes a big hit. Obama can do whatever he wants whenever he wants. He will never have to face the voters again-—unlike House members who have to face them every two years. Even if the media turned on Obama (fat chance!) it would matter not to him now that he safely re-elected. Obama CAN take a three week taxpayer paid trip to Hawaii. Obama can shoot hoops and play golf all day long. I doubt he gets up before 9:00 AM anyways—we know he doesn’t bother reading his intelligence briefs-—if Obama does get up early probably to go to the gym to help preserve his greyhound figure. He basks in the adulation of the media, was named Time Magazines Man of the Year-—something which will surely pump up his already inflated ego and cult of personality also egged on by Hollyweird-—folks like Clooney, Letterman, Jay Z, Beyonce and all of the rest. The mass public sucks up all of this crap. Obama doesn’t really do an ounce of work. Even the major legislation passed in the first term-—Obamacare and the Porkulus-—all of the heavy lifting for that was done by Pelousy and Reid and their minions in Congress. That’s where the real work was done, the bribing of fence sitting senators, the twisting of arms, the vote counting, the horse trading-—all engineered by Pelousy and Reid, Obama remained far above the fray and allowed them to do all of the dirty work and sausage making. Obama doesn’t care about any of the details. He sees his overall role as setting the agenda. The agenda in a word is reparations-—redistributing wealth, raising taxes, more spending, more entitlements, bigger government-—he doesn’t care how it gets done and he leaves the details and heavy lifting to others so he can travel and get away from the White House and I suspect Michelle and his mother in law who also resides there. Bottom line: Obama now has the luxury of time on his side and the freedom to do virtually anything he wants any time he wants.

On to Boehner: He really is in a crappy position no matter how you look at it. Time is not on his side, in fact it is running out-—ALL of the GWB tax rates expire in less than two weeks. Boehner has to salvage whatever he can. Boehner does have one ace up his sleeve. But it is doubtful he will play it to the maximum effect: The debt ceiling. The House must agree to increase it. If I were Boehner, in mob parlance, I would go to the mattresses. I would throw down the gauntlet. I would say to Obama, Pelousy and Reid: My House will not vote to increase the debt ceiling unless ALL of the GWB taxcuts are made permanent. Perid. End of discussion. Of course the government could shut down for a period of time, and the Dems and their allies in the media will public hysteria and opposition against the House GOP. But if they hang tough, they could block any tax increases at all. It would take a lot of cojones and a willingness to risk to buck the media and the public opinion polls. But it would also show a steely resolve and ultimately command respect in a town that only respects power and the willingness to use it.