An article Who Really Got What in the Tax Deal? by Mike Konczal is posted on the New Deal 2.0 web site.

There is no continuation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund  (TANF EF) from the stimulus bill in the tax cut compromise. Regular TANF was created as part of the Clinton-era welfare reform to get people off assistance by getting them back to work. This approach becomes problematic when unemployment is high due to faults in monetary and fiscal policy, not because people choose not to work. In a Great Recession, TANF runs out of both money and conceptual scope very quickly. So this Emergency Fund, at the low cost of five billion dollars distributed to states, allowed locals on the ground to expand and continue TANF to meet the needs of fighting poverty and putting people to work.

The White House claims that “We got $238 billion and the Republicans got $114 billion out of the tax cut capitulation.”

Mike Konczal shows that the White House got $106 billion out of the deal and the Republicans got $246 billion.

Not bad negotiating for a party that has minorities in one branch of the government and nothing in a second branch of the government.  Maybe we need to stop President Obama from negotiating with himself before he negotiates with the opposition.  By the time he is finished negotiating with himself, the opposition has already got more than they had hoped for.