Overheard at the White House Debt Ceiling Talks

"The Democrats promise you one thing:
There's a limit to populist plund'ring;
We can't from the Right
Stray too far, since we might
Be depending on Wall Street for funding."

Liberal commentators and legislators have begun to give voice to the grievance that President Barack Obama's deficit-fighting measures, despite the symbolism of rolling back tax breaks on luxury goods, are substantially similar to those of House Speaker John Boehner's Republicans. Marginal revenue from taxes on corporate jets would be dwarfed in size and impact by the constraints on Social Security said to be in the works. In substance if not rhetoric, both parties appear to play not to their electoral base, but their donor base.