This current tax deal fiasco didn't have to happen. And you cannot blame Obama for rushing in at the last minute to try and cut a deal with Republicans at the last minute when all of his agenda that was supposed to happen in the lame duck session was about to go down.
The REAL BLAME rests with every Democratic member of the House and the Senate.
A bill that made the middle class tax cuts and all of the tax programs for the middle class and working poor permanent could have, and by all right SHOULD HAVE been introduced to the floor for a vote some time after September 6.
This would have put the Republicans on the spot. This would have forced the Republicans to either vote in favor of the Democratic version of tax cuts or explain to the voters why Republicans voted in lock step against tax cuts that every single tax payer would have experienced.
IT was the biggest no-brainer of a win-win scenario the Democrats had ever been handed on a silver platter. This could have altered the outcome of the November elections significantly. This could have actually allowed the Democrats to retain control of the House.
And they blinked because they are lily livered spineless cowards. Every last one of them.
So don't blame Obama. Blame the cowards who brought this crap on. Blame the ones who are now expressing their phony outrage at Obama trying to actually get something approaching relief for the middle class and working poor before he's forced to work with a hostile House of Representatives where all tax bills must constitutionally (Article I, Section 7.) originate.