Seems that the President tried a bit of bait-and-switch in the negotiations – from NRO’s The Corner:

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) offered his side of the story Friday evening, echoing the tone of his letter to House Republicans. He said negotiations with the White House broke down for two reasons: 1) President Obama’s insistence on raising taxes, and 2) Obama’s “refusal to get serious” about spending cuts and meaningful entitlement reform.

Boehner said “an agreement had been reached” earlier in the week that included about $800 billion in new revenue (but not through raising increases). However, the White House on Thursday “moved the goal post” by insisting on an additional $400 billion in tax increases, which Boehner refused to accept. “I take the same oath of office as the president…to do what is in the best interest of our country,” Boehner said. “And it’s not in the best interest of our country to raise taxes in this economy.”…

NRO reports elsewhere that Obama also messed around with some of the proposed spending reforms as regards entitlements.  The bottom line seems to be that a deal was in the making which was acceptable to the GOP but then when it became crunch time, Obama and the Democrats slipped provisions in the GOP had not – and could not – agree to.  I don’t know if this was a poison pill to kill a deal the Democrat didn’t like, at all, or an effort to blindside the GOP (ie, at the last minute put in things that were unacceptable and count on GOP fear of busting up the deal to force them to go along).  In either case it seems to have stopped things in their tracks.  President Obama has called for a White House conference tomorrow – so we’ll see how that goes.

But the good news is that the GOP is standing firm – the revenue increases Boehner agreed to were such that even TEA Partiers could grudgingly accept:  not a rate hike, but a reform of loopholes and such to increase revenues without hiking taxes and killing jobs.  The deal is still too weak in my view – especially as I’m certain that we don’t need to raise the debt ceiling at all – but it did have a solid reduction in spending.  Not nearly enough to get us out of the debt mess, but enough to put off the day of reckoning until at least 2015 or later, thus giving us a chance to replace Obama and get someone with sense in the White House.  My congratulations to the Speaker for smoking out the attempted scam and refusing to be a sucker.

Now, we’ll just see what happens…

From Hot Air:

The Senate just voted down the House Cut Cap and Balance bill, 51-46. Reid danced on its grave, proclaiming it “over, dead, and done.” Back to the Democrat plan:

Nothing!

Which is exactly right – the thing to do, now, is to re-pass it in the House, maybe adding a few changes.  You know, deeper cuts to spending, lowering income tax rates, imposing a wealth tax on the billionaires who back liberalism.  Send it right back to the Senate and see if they keep at it…or, some day, come up with an alternative plan.  Either way, we win.

UPDATE:  Turns out this bill is not quite dead – Senator DeMint is going to try and force a vote next week.  Could be done, you know – those “2012 Democrats” don’t want to have a bunch of votes on record against a balanced budget; only need a few of them to break lose and it passes – and then it will be up to Obama to sign or veto.  So, we don’t at this point need to re-pass it in the House…but we should be prepared to do so, just in case.

Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air notes the CNN poll:

…One has to go thirteen paragraphs into the story to find CNN addressing this at all:

“Republicans like the “cut, cap, and balance” approach to the debt ceiling, as do Democrats and independents. Most Americans support a balanced budget amendment, and most, but not as many, think an amendment is necessary to get federal spending under control. A balanced budget amendment passed the House earlier this week, but a vote in the Senate is expected to fail.”

Er, yeah.  In other words, a consensus exists across all political lines that the CCB/BBA approach would be a good idea.  When one scrolls down to the crosstab sections of the raw data, the consensus becomes very, very clear.  The CCB/BBA approach wins majorities in every single demographic — including self-described liberals.  Sixty-three percent of Democrats back the House bill.  The least supportive age demographic is 50-64YOs at 62/37; the least supportive regional demographic is the Midwest at 61/39.  Even those who express opposition to the Tea Party supports it 53/47…

Naturally, CNN buried the story – they don’t really want to broadcast widely a poll of their own showing that Obama and his Congressional Democrats are out of step with the mainstream.  But, it is there – and it is clear:  the people want the government to cut spending, cap it and balance the budget.

The compromise, if the Democrats are at all interested, is to add a mix of tax hikes to CCB.  I know, I know, fellow Republicans – might as well ask us to have our finger nails ripped off.  But, seriously, we do have a liberal, Democrat President and a liberal, Democrat controlled Senate.  While we are clearly winning the debate on what needs to be done, we can’t ignore the will of the people as expressed in 2008 – elections do have consequences and we’ve got Barry and the (liberal) Boys until at least January 20th, 2013.  So, let’s talk compromise – my preference would be to insert my “wealth tax” proposal in to the mix (ie, a tax on wealth in excess of $5 million), but given the realities of the situation, we’d probably have to go along with some sort of income tax hike, though we would want to work it to be least damaging to small and mid-sized businesses.

But that, of course, would be if the Democrats were interested in compromise – or, indeed, if they even knew what compromise is.  They don’t – liberals are entirely “my way or the highway”.  And, in truth, they are rather stuck – if the budget is balanced and government stops growing, there ceases to be a reason for liberalism – as they have constructed it – to exist.  Real liberalism – even though still fundamentally wrong – could continue to exist; but this quasi-socialist, racialist, neo-fascist liberalism of modern America has no place in an America where the era of big government is really over.

For us it is just a matter of holding firm – do not give in.  Just keep insisting on CCB.  The Democrats will either be dragged kicking and screaming to it, or they’ll blow the whole thing wide open and be forced to carry a defense of Big Government in to 2012.  There is no way for us to lose unless we give in.