Gotta disagree.
Boehner really had little wiggle room.
What he got was acknowledgment that the Bush tax cuts were a good thing all along and he got 98% of taxpayers a more permanent tax cut. He actually forced the dems to view the Bush cuts as now a good thing instead of just one more thing they demonize.
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-25/business/36015725_1_bush-tax-tax-cuts-tax-rates
The above from the “Washington Post” of all places, is just one of many articles showing the dichotomy of now approving of tax cuts they once demonized.
Here’s a cut from the piece:
“President Obama has put the extension of the tax cuts for most Americans at the top of his domestic agenda, a remarkable turnaround for Democrats, who had staunchly opposed the tax breaks when they were written into law about a decade ago.”
Its hard not to see this as about the best we could have got from the cards we had to play.
• The GOP got swindled during the 2011 "debt deal" that placed great hope that the "Super Committee" in the sky would do what everyone knows has to be done, but does not have the political courage to do: reform entitlements. Instead, the GOP caved on agreeing to allow the military to take the body blow of 50% of the cuts, despite being 18% of the budget, and being the one agency that is called for in the US Constitution
• This "deal" did nothing but delay those cuts, that are now looming again in about seven weeks. Moreover, it is even worse when the details are examined. The DoD will now have only 7 months to implement the first set of cuts (which last 10 years!) for the remainder of the fiscal year. Worse still, they cannot cut troop strength (although that is coming very soon), so the DoD will be forced to slash the Operations and Maintenance budget line, which is the basically the life blood of the military. The cut will be deep, about 25-30% and will be immediate, resulting in the most rapid and deepest hollowing out of the Defense Dept in American history
• Taxes went up on everyone - the payroll tax was deducted from almost every hard working American's paycheck the day after Congress passed this legislation (and even before Obama's underlings "autopenned" his name
• The tax increases in "the rich" will fund the government for a whopping 6 days
• Real entitlement reform in the coming "debt ceiling" is now no where because of this political defeat the GOP signed onto. That means we are screwed as a nation.