more to the middle might have been able to get something through congress. once he started talking about a big tax increase on the rich, there s no way republicans were going to go for that. i think this has become a political debate not a debate about what we can pass right now. that s a problem when you have 14 million unemployed people. didn t the summer teach the white house there was going to be no consensus and trying to do a deal, trying actually to move to the center is what the white house tried to do over the debt ceiling isn t going to work. if you talk to people at the white house precisely for that reason you talk to people at the white house they say actually we really tried hard to do a deal and we think it s a huge mistake because the other side doesn t want to bargain and that s what the president is hearing. from his base. they did make a deal on the budget. not a meaningful deal that moves economic deal. economic warfare, tax the rich that s not a