Indeed, the deal negotiated Sunday - after weeks of brinksmanship - would leave until later the big problems such as Social Security and Medicare, whose finances must be overhauled as the population ages.
Deficits would continue for the coming decade, and the debt would continue to rise - just not as much as if there is no deal.
Obama struggled throughout the weeks of clashes.
He came to the debt debate late. After spending the first two years of his term pushing greater federal spending to fight the effects of a deep recession, he largely ignored recommendations to cut deficits by his own bipartisan commission headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, and did not propose any significant deficit reductions in his Feb. 1 budget proposal to Congress. His budget envisioned the debt rising by $9 trillion over 10 years.
And when he first asked Congress to increase the government's debt ceiling - to allow more borrowing to pay bills already in the pipeline - he insisted it be done without any conditions as it had been done routinely for decades.
Only after the Republican-controlled House of Representatives demanded offsetting spending cuts over the next 10 years to match any increase in the debt ceiling did Obama change course and enter negotiations.
He pressed for tax increases along with spending cuts, but did not prevail. After Republicans walked out of White House talks claiming they could not negotiate with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, a veteran of the Senate, stepped in.
"The perception is that the president has abrogated leadership," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political scientist at the University of Southern California. "He lost it when he sort of blew off the Bowles-Simpson commission. He could have used it as a starting point."
Also, Obama was somewhat captive to the left wing of the Democratic Party, knowing his approval ratings are low and that he'll need a big turnout from liberals in what could be a very close re-election contest next year.
Thus, when he and the Republicans appeared close to a deal more than a week ago - one that included Republican approval of $800 billion in increased tax revenues over 10 years - Obama came under pressure to make the package more acceptable to liberal Democrats. He proposed adding $400 billion more in taxes - or scaling back cuts in entitlement spending. The Republicans broke off the talks.
At the same time, Obama found himself unable to move the public.
Polls showed a majority of Americans sided with him in pressing for higher taxes from wealthy Americans as part of any deal. Yet despite frequent public appearances to press that approach, Obama saw his approval rating drop to 40 percent last week in the Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency. It had reached 50 percent in June.
"When he's gone out front, he's dropped even further, which gives him even less leverage," said George Edwards, a scholar of the presidency at Texas A&M University.
Assuming they can get the deal through Congress, Republicans can claim some success at forcing the government to start reining in spending.
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