[old curmudgeon]

What Boner should have done:

Looked obumbler in the eye and said:

“Look, kid. You have a long 4 years ahead of you and a lot of appropriations for your pet projects that the general public has no interest in, one way or the other. Keep giving us a hard time on taxes and the next 4 years is going to become very difficult for you.”

But that would take balls. He doesn’t have them.

The courage of a man is not how he deals with his subordinates, but rather how he deals with his equals and his superiors.

[andy58-in-nh]

"I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?" "You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."

If Boehner were any kind of a negotiator, he would have replied: "No, sir. You're mistaken. Now my first offer is $400 billion. Disrespect me again, and I'll drop it to $200 billion. If you want to negotiate, let's negotiate. I'm here and I'm ready. If you want to issue demands, do it on your own time, not mine."