[David DeGerolamo]

I am serious. Obama made the deal with the Republicans in early December as the first step for future negotiations.

Here is one of many articles detailing this arrangement “between the White House and newly empowered Republicans on Capitol Hill”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/us/politics/07cong.html

[Republican Wildcat]

But they weren’t empowered - and that’s the bottom line. No amount of spin can change that fact.