When you have divided government and one side that is willing to torpedo the world economy, the only responsible move left to the adults is to surrender. But that doesn't make it any easier to accept. From TPM:
Dems make like France and Surrender
The Republicans always win in fights like this. That's because they take the maximal position each time and they don't budge. It's very hard to make a deal with an ideologue, especially one whose sole goal is to defeat your leader.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's working proposal focusing on $2.7 trillion in cuts that would go through the 2012 elections is silent on revenues. And last night, the White House statement reacting to the state-of-play only objected to GOP efforts to providing a short-term fix and punting the issue of further cuts to a bipartisan commission next year.As it stands right now, Republicans seem to have scored a major coup, and the White House may be second-guessing itself for trying to up the ante last week from $800 billion in revenue raisers to $1.2 trillion after the Senate group known as the Gang of Six put out its plan.