Obama is Determined to Give Republicans What They Deserve on the Fiscal Cliff

http://www.politicususa.com/obama-determined-give-republicans-deserve-fiscal-cliff.html


Obama is Determined to Give Republicans What They Deserve on the Fiscal Cliff

By: Jason EasleyDec. 23rd, 2012


More reporting confirms that President Obama’s hard stance on the fiscal cliff is a reality. Obama is looking to drive his election victory home by only giving Republicans what they’ve earned on the fiscal cliff.

As Politico reported in a story titled Why Obama isn’t Caving, “But if the 2012 election increased the president’s comfort with public emotion, it also strengthened his desire to ensure that the GOP — a party that has lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections — doesn’t get a better deal than they have earned.”

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People keep comparing the fiscal cliff negotiations to 2010, when they should be looking at last year for a more appropriate comparison. Republicans were hoping they would get 2010 Obama. Instead, they got 2011 Obama times ten. The president’s reelection victory has given him an exponential increase in strength, leverage and political capital.

While Boehner and the House Republicans are mired in their standard dysfunction, President Obama is at the height of his powers. The more Republicans misbehave, the lower Obama’s offer to them goes. Notice the shift in authority, Obama is deciding what or if a deal gets done. The days of House Republicans dictating their terms to Obama look to be long gone. (Those days actually ended in 2011, but some people refuse to see it.)

Obama is going to be the one to determine if Republicans get anything at all.

Based on their current behavior House Republicans have earned nothing, which is exactly what the president is offering them.