Call me desperate. Call me a hanger-on. Call me a starry-eyed believer in fairy dust and unicorns.
But there is a strategy that may be at work in the apparent "caving" on the Bush tax cuts.
Here's how it goes, as far as I understand it. (And please correct me if I'm wrong about how this all works.)
To pass something via reconciliation, it can't negatively affect the budget.
So, the Dems allow the Bush tax cuts their extension, in exchange for unemployment benefits, DADT, or whatnot.
Then, before the lame duck Congress is over, the Dems come back and repeal the tax cuts for the top 2%, and pass the change under Reconciliation, which only needs a simply majority.
Slick, eh? No?
Why wouldn't they do this? It would explain why they're not wasting time even making a show over the top 2% tax cuts--because they need that time to come back and repeal them under Reconciliation.
Keep clapping and that fairy might live after all, kids.