I have to chuckle at Ron Klain’s story about the subtle genius of the Obama Administration with respect to the payroll tax cut. Klain credits Timothy Geithner (and Gene Sperling, then an advisor to Geithner) with coming up with a strategy that turned a one-year payroll tax cut into what looks to be a two-year one. But remedy for using Making Work Pay to get more money to workers quicker is to double Making Work Pay. It was a $400 benefit; just make it an $800 benefit. If you like, raise the cap.

So you have this crazy circumstance where the payroll tax cut ends up a worse deal for low-income workers, who would spend the money, and a better deal for high-income workers, who probably won’t.

The Democratic argument about the tax cuts is right. But the leader of the party already stopped making it. He’s busy bargaining. And so that’s the bargain we’ll get. It’s a major loss for the party, and I think a lot of politicians inside it understand that.