Obama's "Grand Bargain" Delusion

[joshcryer]

28. That's what I don't like about that blog post.

By saying something must be done now and before the tax cuts expire means that there's something to negotiate over.

They do say to let the cuts expire.

They also say don't cut Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security.

Neither of which is contingent upon one another. If you do absolutely nothing, nada, zip, then the tax cuts expire, and pow, you've just put a huge dent in the long term deficit forecasts.

There's only one way out of this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/bush-tax-cuts-fiscal-cliff_b_2104398.html

I'm not saying don't sit around and draft legislation, but to negotiate in the lame duck session would be a real screw up. I'm not ruling out the possibility that the Republicans will want to negotiate and that the terms would be reasonable. I just find it unlikely.