The House Republicans, led by Speaker of the House John Boehner, caved in this afternoon, under pressure from the Wall Street Journal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Karl Rove, and numerous Senate Republicans including a new convert, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and agreed to the two month temporary extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment compensation, and delay in Medicare cuts to doctors.
The House Republicans were pushed into a corner, and this is a major victory for the American people, the Democrats, and President Barack Obama, who finally took a no negotiation stand and forced the hand of Boehner, Eric Cantor, and the Tea Party radicals.
The effect of this victory is that Boehner has been weakened as Speaker; the Tea Party radicals have been shown to be destructive to the nation at large; Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, the chief deputies to Boehner, have been shown for the deceit they practiced on Boehner in their mad rush to seize power from him; and this event has likely assured a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress!
The Republicans have, symbolically, shot themselves in the foot, and will have trouble convincing the American people that they care about the middle class, and that they are not beholden to the corporations and the top one percent wealthy in this country!
Barack Obama looks a lot stronger and more assertive as a result of this confrontation, and with Ron Paul rising in Iowa, and being exposed for his racist and anti Semitic past, and with the GOP in total disarray, the odds of Obama winning reelection have improved tremendously!