President Barack Obama employed a masterful use of political rope-a-dope to lure the Republicans into a no-win position in the debt ceiling negotiations. President Obama seemed to be losing the debt ceiling battle. Republicans lunged forward demanding huge cuts to the budget. Obama suddenly peeked from behind his gloves and said I agree, just raise taxes on the wealthy.
Speaker of the House John Boehner knew he had been sucker punched and had to go to his members in the House of Representative and tell them that they got what they have been seeking. Social Security and Medicare were on the table, but there was one small hitch, they had to raise taxes on the rich.
Boehner already knew that the cause was lost. There was nothing that could be given to convince his Tea Party captors to increase taxes on the wealthy. So looking like a man given his marching orders he gave up the holy grail of reforming Social Security and Medicare in order to not raise taxes on the wealthy. John Boehner had to speak into a microphone that his party would pass up deep budget cuts in favor of smaller cuts in order to keep tax breaks in place for millionaires and billionaires.
