Obama's Hand--Straight Flush or Jack High?

We should be cautious about critiquing President Obama's methods.  After all, he had a historically successful first term.  But one has to wonder why he caved on the $250,000 income threshold.  Instead of 2% percent of Americans' taxes going up, it's going to be only 0.6%. 

This is not a game where progressives make Republicans cry "uncle;" it's an effort to close the deficit to a sustainable level.  Yes, the Republicans finally caved, though by default only, on their ideological position.  But how much revenue was lost by unnecessarily raising the tax cut threshold to $450,000?

Fiscally responsible Americans can only hope that when spending starts to be cut, there's another trimming of tax goodies for the upper income.