Obama: Why Sure I'd Like To Go Over The Cliff

"Reluctantly," you understand. As a last resort, you know.

This basic dynamic — Boehner cannot haggle freely with the president due to the intense opposition to a deal within his own ranks — has not fundamentally changed. What has changed is the president's hand. According to senior administration officials, Obama is not eager to go over the cliff, but he is willing. If no deal is reached by the end of the month, all the Bush tax cuts — for the rich and not-rich — will evaporate. Obama would then demand in early January that the new Congress immediately pass legislation to reinstate the lower tax rates for the bottom 98 percent.

Some in the liberal media are even willing to report that it's beginning to look like the Democrats are pretending to negotiate, while actually doing all they can to avoid a deal.

Over the last 96 hours, it’s become abundantly clear that any post-election momentum that was building for a deal to avert the fiscal cliff has abated and we are, in the words of House Speaker John Boehner, at a “stalemate”.

The more intriguing — and harder to answer — question is whether deadlock is right where Democrats want things to be and whether the President’s party has any real interest in finding common ground before Dec. 31.

Republicans have whispered for weeks now that they believe Democrats and the White House want to go over the fiscal cliff and that the President’s initial offer late last week... is blunt evidence that the White House is interested in making it appear as though they are willing to deal without actually being willing to deal.

...

And even the Democratic strategist set insists that their side isn’t interested in taking the leap — although they quickly note that if that was to happen, the party would be in position to benefit politically.

“I don’t believe the Dems want to go over the fiscal cliff — don’t believe it at all,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala. “But they are prepared for it, and are in a better position than the Republicans should it occur.”

posted by Ace at 04:36 PM

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