Obama tax deal with GOP marks fast turn

[somone]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/10/AR2010121004095.html

Obama tax deal with GOP marks fast turn
By TOM RAUM

WASHINGTON -- So much for slashing those soaring budget deficits. Less than a week after his bipartisan deficit commission offered a package of tough tax hikes and spending cuts to stem the flood of government red ink, President Barack Obama cut a deal with Republicans that would add a whopping $900 billion to the nation's debt over the next two years.

When the bold deficit-slashing measures were greeted last week with widespread praise, Democrat Erskine Bowles, the commission's co-chairman and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, cheerfully exclaimed, "The era of deficit denial in Washington is over." Well, apparently not quite yet. Bowles said this week that he was "deeply disappointed" by the sweeping Obama-GOP deal, complaining that the plan was not linked to any long-term restraint...

The outcry over ballooning deficits was crucial in the last month's midterm elections, which handed majority control of the House to Republicans and gave them added clout in the Senate. The issue was a rallying point for the tea party movement. A flock of freshmen legislators will take office in January having campaigned for smaller government and fiscal discipline.

That Obama could pivot so quickly from emphasizing the need for deficit reduction - such as his plan late last month to freeze the pay of most executive branch employees - to endorsing a GOP-backed plan to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all income brackets, plus a host of other costly measures, took much of Washington by surprise. No one was more surprised than many in his own party, who promptly revolted...

[aquart]

1. Pivot? No. Straight trajectory.

[glitch]

2. Right, as in to the. nt