The White House may be eyeing new compromises, now that an interim fiscal cliff deal has been reached with House Republicans.
Conservatives are feeling bolstered without their backs to the cliff, and even though the financial reckoning has only been pushed off for a few months, Republicans feel like they have a stronger hand in any future negotiations, and privately, many Democrats agree.
As 2012 wound down, Congress faced heavy pressure from the public to solve the fiscal cliff, and Republican intransigence played poorly in the media.
The latest deal involves permanent status for the Bush-era tax cuts for households making less than $450,000 a year, so Republicans are able to say they made compromises by allowing rates to hop back up to the Clinton-era rates for incomes over that threshold.
But that won't be enough revenue to close the budget gap, and it's nowhere near the $1.6 trillion President Obama wanted.
So when the Treasury Department comes to Congress with hat in hand asking them to raise the debt ceiling in about two months, Republicans have little incentive to approve it until the get concessions of their own.
That means steep cuts in social programs and entitlements, probably affecting even Social Security and Medicare, which until now Democrats have been fairly successful at protecting.
Republicans can say taxes have already gone up on the wealthy, that the "job creators" are tapped out, and that it's time for the rest of the country to pitch in.
And Obama seems willing to consider that argument.
He's already shown a willingness to give the Republicans far more than other Democrats would be willing.
He's offered $600 billion in cuts to Medicare, and lower Social Security payments.
Still, Obama does have one ace up his sleeve: sequestration.
The across-the-board indiscriminate tax cuts are still set to happen in a few months, and they'll hurt Republicans far more than Democrats, as Social Security and Medicare are off the table but defense is squarely on the chopping block.
Before then, Obama may need to stash away some political currency, though it's anyone's guess whether he'll do that by compromising now or by taking a tough stance and standing his ground.
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