Charles Krauthammer on the Republican Cave

The final compromise appears to tweak this a bit to make it less onerous for small business. But what were they thinking in the first place? What business operates two months at a time? The minimal time horizon for business is the quarter -- three months. What genius came up with two? U.S. businesses would have to budget for two-thirds of a one-quarter tax-holiday extension. As if this government has not already heaped enough regulatory impediments and mindless uncertainties upon business.

But making economic sense is not the point. The tax-holiday extension -- presumably to be negotiated next year into a 12-month extension -- is the perfect campaign ploy: an election-year bribe that has the additional virtue of seizing the tax issue for the Democrats.