Had he taken them seriously before now, one can imagine the results: a faster economic recovery with lower unemployment, a popular form of health-care reform, a grand bargain with real spending cuts, a smaller deficit and declining debt-to-GDP ratio, and a less polarized Washington.
Just as the cable television newsmen were bemoaning the unwillingness of the Republicans to compromise, Boehner came forward to suggest strongly that the Grand Bargain was a very real possibility since his Republicans in Congress would now be willing to accept some tax increases to produce revenues to balance off the reductions in spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.