AP
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Friday that President
This is a massive cave from both Obama and Congressional Democrats on
It's also a huge win for
In the White House press briefing Friday, Carney basically admitted defeat.
"I think you're imagining leverage here," he said, in response to a question about why the administration isn't holding the
The White House will be hard-pressed to find another situation in which it can gain better leverage. Until now, Obama has banked on public outrage over the cuts to bring Republicans to the table for a bigger solution that included tax increases.
But that opportunity vanished in just four days. Republicans masterfully controlled the messaging on flight delays this week, and in the end, they were the more unified party.
Majority Leader
"Consider that the Democrats' opening position was they would only replace the sequester with tax increases," Cantor wrote in the memo, which was provided to Business Insider by a House leadership source.
"By the first of this week, Senator Reid proposed replacing the whole sequester with phony war savings. And by last night, Senate Democrats were adopting our targeted 'cut this, not that' approach. This victory is in large part a result of our standing together under the banner of #Obamaflightdelays."