The Case For Going Over The Cliff Remains Strong

By Matthew Yglesias | Posted Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, at 11:18 AM ET

I wrote earlier today that I think the failure of Plan B makes a deal more likely than it would have been had the bill passed. But I do want to emphasize that there continues to be an excellent chance that a deal won't be made until January, and a strong case that the otucome will be better on the merits if we wait until January.

One key issue is that, as John Boehner said today, many of his members were reluctant to vote for Plan B because of "a perception" that it would be a vote to increase taxes. That's nuts. The full expiration of the Bush tax cuts is the law of the land. The debate between the White House and the GOP is over how much to cut taxes. But a variety of factors, including the Obama administration's messaging and the Congressional Budget Office's counterproductive insistence on publication of an "Alternative Fiscal Scenario" baseline have clouded this issue. Come January, however, perception changes.