Avoiding the Fiscal Cliff

[Geee]

National Review:

In his first formal press conference in months, Barack Obama showed that getting reelected can increase a president’s confidence and combativeness. He staked out tough stands on several issues, especially on the looming budget negotiations.

Looking ahead to the “fiscal cliff” on December 31, when the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and sequestration cuts government spending sharply, Obama demanded $1.6 trillion of increased revenues as part of any budget bargain.

That’s twice the number he and Speaker John Boehner agreed on in the grand-bargain talks in the summer of 2011.

Those talks fell apart when Obama telephoned Boehner and raised his demand to $1.2 trillion. Boehner refused, and, as Bob Woodward describes in The Price of Politics, congressional leaders of both parties worked out their own approach. Sequestration, first suggested by Obama’s budget director, became part of the deal.