Democrats happier than Republicans with fiscal cliff deal

Loser. Pew:

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Jan. 3-6 among 1,003 adults, finds that 57% say that Obama got more of what he wanted from the tax legislation while just 20% say Republican leaders got more of what they wanted. And while 48% approve of the way Obama handled the fiscal cliff negotiations only 19% approve of the way GOP leaders handled the negotiations.

Republicans take a particularly sour view of the outcome: just 16% approve of the final legislation, and by a 74% to 11% margin they think Obama got more of what he wanted. Only 40% of Republicans approve of how their party's leaders handled the negotiations; by comparison, fully 81% of Democrats approve of how Obama handled the negotiations.

Republicans are so stupid that 73 percent think the higher tax rates for those over $400,000 (and limited deductions for those over $250,000) will affect them. They wish they were that wealthy. In fact, 60 percent of respondents with a high school diploma or less think the tax legislation will hurt them -- the wonders of Fox News.

Of course, these responses track pretty well the outcome of this initial round of negotiations. Democrats did get more out of the deal than Republicans, hence it's no surprise that our side is happy and their side is not. And given the White House and Democrats' public stances on the debt-ceiling and Fiscal Cliff II negotiations, we can be cautiously optimistic that we may exit this process without cuts to our most important social net programs.

On the other hand, numbers like these increase pressure on Republicans to deliver the goods the second time around. Their base is unhappy, the House GOP caucus is restless. Conservative media is apoplectic. And most are psychotic enough to push America to default to get their way.

We're not out of the woods yet.