He wanted new taxes; sorry, enhanced revenues. You know, those rich corporate jet owners, et al.
All he got basically, it seems, was an agreement to put off the next spending fight until after the 2012 presidential election. Republican legislators, who said they wanted to debate the debt limit again next winter, gave that up. Which helps them as much as the former legislator now in the White House...
Obama stepped into the stalled talks in recent weeks. He never offered his own new debt reduction plan, but used several public statements and closed White House meetings to show executive leadership and criticize other plans.
He used his poll-tested "balanced approach" demand numerous times (meaning more taxes as well as spending cuts) and sent aides like David Plouffe out to repeat how Republicans were demanding "my way or the highway."
As one result, not only did Obama's overall job approval sink to 40%, lowest of his 923 days in office.
A new Rasmussen Reports national survey of likely voters out Sunday night revealed a sharp jump in the number of Americans who find this Democratic chief executive to be 'too confrontational' in his national leadership approach. Nearly one in three (30%) now say that about the man who was going to change Washington's harsh partisan atmosphere. That's the highest percentage in 16 months and up nine points in just four weeks. On his first day in office more than a trillion dollars ago in 2009, 64% called Obama a good or excellent leader. That number has since slid to 42%.
(Andrew Malcom, Los Angeles Times.)
