As the White House pushes its advantages of message control and a unified (though not necessarily wise) budget policy, the GOP remains on the defensive.

The shrillness of “cliff” talk bewitches minds that should be skeptical about the supposed point of all this — deficit reduction.

Barack Obama and the Democrats may well get higher tax rates. But it’s not likely that high tax rates can ever generate enough revenue to fund unreformed entitlement programs.

Overall, the polls found that 52 percent of registered voters support extending tax cuts for all incomes — even those making more than $250,000.