Meet me half-way?

The GOP is the biggest bully I know, and so far they don't want to give anything to the Democrats as the fiscal battle nears a significant deadline. Even though Obama set the stage for the current situation by opening negotiations on deficit reduction this spring with a proposal that included a 3-to-1 ratio between spending reductions and tax increases, that largesse still doesn't appear to satisfy the Republicans.

What has happened to the old “I'll meet you half-way” approach? While I think that expenses, including of course the military ones, should be cut drastically, taxes on the very rich must be raised and that 3-to-1 ratio seems to be a floor below which the Administration should never accept to go to. You see, my sense of measure is quite flexible...