Two summers ago, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner were deep in discussions over a Grand Bargain, an historic deal that would’ve changed government — and government spending — in extraordinary ways.

And then?  Boehner walked away.

Why?  Obama demanded more revenue as a part of the deal, in other words, higher taxes or more closed loopholes on the wealthiest.

Here’s the final part of the negotiations (you can read a full article detailing what Obama offered to cut here):

“Obama offered to put Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid cuts on the table in exchange for a tax hike of roughly $100 billion per year over 10 years. Meanwhile, government spending would be cut by roughly three times that amount.”

So a one-trillion dollar tax hike combined with a $3 trillion spending cut over ten years.

No deal.

Now, a year and a half later?

Obama got most of his tax hike, $600 billion worth.

And spending cuts?  Oh, $12 billion.  For January and February of this year.  As to other cuts?  Who knows. They — “they” being the Administration and Congress — say they’ll meet to consider how to deal with the now-delayed sequestration over the next two months, just in time for debating the debt ceiling.

In other words?

A year and a half ago, Republicans had a deal that gave them most of what they wanted in spending cuts.  But their anti-tax absolutism killed any hopes.

And now they signed off on tax increases but no spending cuts.  

Who’s running that party, Groucho, Harpo, Chico or Chancy Gardiner?