Politics: Could a Deal on the ?Fiscal Cliff? Be Worthy of Spielberg?

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Politics Could a Deal on the "Fiscal Cliff" Be Worthy of Spielberg? If Obama and Boehner want to make history, they'll need a bold breakthrough—maybe even something cinematic. By John Dickerson Posted Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012, at 06:24 PM ET "This is not Spielberg's Lincoln, OK? You're not going to pick these guys off one at a time," Republican Rep. Tom Cole said to me in a recent conversation about fiscal-cliff negotiations between President Obama and Republicans. "We have one negotiator. His name is John Boehner." President Lincoln passed the 13th Amendment by siphoning off enough Democrats to win passage. Cole says Obama can't do the same thing with today's House Republicans. Any deal that passes the House will do so with the majority of Republican support. "If he comes back and tells us, 'This is a deal, I think it's the best deal I can get, it's an acceptable deal for the American people,'—the support will be there." We may be close to that moment. In the last several days, the speaker and the president have been trading proposals at a faster and more serious rate. There could be a tentative deal announced this week. Cole got me to thinking: Would there be anything in such a deal to warrant treatment by Steven Spielberg? The agreement is shaping up to cover about $2 trillion in deficit cuts, which isn't puny. The White House will claim the president has notched more than $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the last year. Relative to the recent paltry history of bipartisan dealmaking, this is notable, but that may say more about the shriveled times we live in. To make it worthy of Spielberg ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Beating Guns the Bloomberg Way The Flu Vaccine Controversy The Catch-22 of Eyewitness ID	Advertisement
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