One tweet to fool them all and in the darkness bind them

The Senate passed a bill in the early hours of January 1st, meaning technically the Bush tax cuts have expired and we've been effectively pushed off the "fiscal cliff." So now we're waiting for the House to pick up their side of the legislative safety net to break the fall. I'd advise not to hold the breath, since Cantor has already announced the House GOPers haven't yet decided to take a vote today. Hey, what's the rush?

Booman explained the Senate deal. Clearly it's not perfect. It's far from a resounding victory for liberalism, but Dems have made much worse concessions and GOPers voted for raising revenue via taxing the wealthy for the first time in 20 years. And more importantly, UI benefits were extended and some middle class tax breaks like AMT, child credits and college credits were saved. And the major social safety programs were left untouched. The worst part of the deal is it didn't resolve enough of the issues to avoid yet another huge invented crisis in just another couple months.

But however this stupid drama plays out today, this tweet last night makes the long range GOP strategy clear:

This is of course a lie. Not that Obama didn't offer up the chained CPI, but it was because it was the only way to have even a dim hope of getting GOP votes. Which, of course, they still didn't get.

The Republican Party wants desperately to blackmail Democrats into destroying the social contract made with working Americans and stick the Democratic party with all the blame. And as long the legacy media continues to play the false equivalency game, Republicans have nothing to lose by holding America hostage and lying about it.