Column: The Great Bipartisan Sellout of 2010

The liberal blogs are all in a tizzy about how President Barack Obama "caved" to Republicans, agreeing to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone, not just those making under $250,000 a year as he said he wanted.

Some are saying that Obama has been seriously damaged by this episode, looking weak and handing the narrative and momentum to the GOP, and that he might have a tough time getting reelected in 2012.

If you buy into this, then you are missing the real story. Obama didn't cave on tax cuts. It's clear that the fix was in, that he and congressional leaders sold out months ago, adding another $858 billion to the deficit while padding the bank accounts of their wealthy benefactors.

The president and his Democratic allies in Congress could have easily passed the tax cuts they said they wanted earlier this summer. Not many Republicans would vote against a tax cut before a big election in order to extend cuts for the richest 2 percent. Incoming House Speaker John Boehner admitted as much on camera, saying he would vote for the Democratic version of the tax cuts if that was his only choice. The Democrats only needed one Republican senator to cross over to give them the 60 votes to get it passed, which seems a very easy task considering the political pressure prior to the election.

But even if that didn't work, the Democrats had another, even better avenue to make this happen, one that takes advantage of the sometimes mysterious rules of Congress.

In this scenario, the Democrats could have moved to extend all the tax cuts, a bill every Republican would have gladly signed on to.

Now here is the tricky part. Once that bill became law, then the Democrats could have come back and rescinded the tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year. Because this would technically reduce the budget deficit, it would qualify for the Senate's budget reconciliation rules. That means it would require only 51 votes, and thus easily overcome any Republican filibuster. Ironically, the original Bush tax cuts were passed under similar budget reconciliation rules.

But it gets better. Because rescinding the tax cuts for the rich would have reduced the deficit by $700 billion, the Democrats could have tacked on unemployment insurance extensions, or even another stimulus package if they wanted, as long as it added up to less than $700 billion. In other words, Obama and the Democrats could have gotten everything they wanted, and more.

But they didn't. They didn't even try, and that's the real story.

This isn't some big secret that Democrats didn't know about. I learned about all of this from reading accounts of congressional staffers who were pushing these initiatives this summer. Democratic leaders clearly knew these options existed. So why didn't they take them?

The dirty little secret of Washington politics is that just because a politician says he or she supports some policy, doesn't mean that's the truth. Far too often, these politicians simply say what we the voters want to hear, whatever will get them elected. Then, when these deals are concocted behind closed doors, they help out the fat cats who pay for their campaigns, and give them and their numerous staffers and advisors cushy jobs when they leave government service.

To be clear, there are politicians on both sides — like Republican Rep. Ron Paul and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders — who will stand up for their principles. But there is a core in the center of the political spectrum that includes the leadership of both parties who keep the river of money flowing to the people and institutions that fund politics in this country.

So when you see video of GOP Sen. John Cornyn saying he is going to vote against a bill because of "earmarks," some of which he himself put in the bill, it pulls the curtain back on the kind of hypocrisy that Washington if fueled by.

The funny thing to watch for in these next two years will be the Republicans framing the deficits caused by this tax cut bill as all Obama's fault, even though it was the GOP who forced this deal through. So much for bipartisanship.

We are in for a whole lot more of this political insanity for years to come, until the country collapses under the weight of debt and hypocrisy. Maybe then we will get our economic house in order. Or not.