GOP desperate to avoid defense cuts agreed to in automatic trigger

Obama's 'cave' on the debt ceiling increase is starting to look a little different as the GOP realizes that they really do not like the deal they have struck, and they have no leverage to force the President to change it.

Last year, the GOP held the routine debt ceiling limit increase hostage for $1.2 trillion in cuts. At the time the GOP was attempting to brand itself as the party of fiscal prudence. Much to the annoyance of many on the left, President Obama responded by embracing the cause of deficit reduction.

At the time, Obama's move looked ridiculous as the country is in a recession caused by a lack of demand. The last thing the country needs to worry about right now is the risk of inflation.

Fast forward to the present however and it is now the GOP that is complaining about the deal they struck. GOP Senators McCain and Kyl do not want to see any cuts in spending on bullets and bombs, so their first idea was to try to get the White House to agree to just forget about the military cuts. When the White House dismissed that proposal they came back with a proposal to save the military machine by transferring the cuts to the rest of the federal budget instead.

This is how the GOP negotiating strategy collapses when they can't hold the country hostage with a gun to its head. The McCain/Kyl proposals all offer something that the President probably doesn't want in return for something he wants to avoid.  Heads I win, tails you lose.

The GOP now has a choice, they can either agree to tax the rich at the same rate as everyone else, or they have to live with the consequences of the steep cuts in military spending they demanded. And even though the full impact of those cuts will fall in future years, the Department of Defense is going to be planning for those cuts right now.

So the net effect is that in an election year, President Obama will take credit for being serious about the need to tackle the budget deficit with spending cuts and a tax policy that taxes Mitt Romney at least as much as the rest of us, and will blame the GOP for the specific spending cuts that they demanded. Meanwhile, the GOP's ability to claim credit for the $1.2 trillion in cuts they demanded has been undermined by the attempt by MCCain/Kyl and others to weasel out of their side of the bargain.