Message to fellow bleeding hearts: Ease up, Ripley- you're grinding metal.

At first, President Obama’s tax deal angered me. I was completely dumbfounded and consumed with many expletives questions for our President. Did you reallllly need to negotiate billions of dollars in tax cuts for the rich? Was eviscerating the estate tax necessary? And why would you even consider offering a spot at the table to the party of ‘No’ while neglecting to even invite members of your own party? Whose side are you on?!

After taking deep breaths and allowing wiser friends to talk me down off the ledge, I realized it is simply not as bad as it seems. Enraged liberal commentators and bloggers: I understand your frustration. I too thought this bill was an abomination. On the surface, the tax deal seemed to prove our worst fear: our President by day and liberal-in-shining-armor by night is getting weaker and weaker and moving further and further from the left. Now allow me to talk you down off the ledge.

Sure, the President negotiating with republicans on this deal is enough to make this prideful gal’s heart twist and turn. Eight years of the Bush administration essentially ignoring the existence of democrats in this country left me wrongfully hoping (dare I say expecting?) Obama would dish out similar treatment to republican leadership. After taking a step back, I understood that Obama shouldn’t simply snub the right as Bush had snubbed the left. That would by hypocritical, wrong and totally detrimental to the goals I truly hope he and democratic leadership are able accomplish. By working with republicans and negotiating a deal, Obama established himself as a better President than Bush could have ever hoped to be.

Now for the deal. Yes, the estate tax hurts. But republicans did not exactly escape with house and home on this one. They would have liked the estate tax entirely abolished. Instead, the estate tax will be reinstated, yet dropped from 55% to 35% with a $5 million dollar exemption. Ludicrous? Yes…but tolerable when one considers what everyone else got in return. Tax cuts to the rich (an estimate suggests a family earning more than $1 million will save around $129,000) and the uber rich are thoroughly ridiculous and should make most millionaires weep out of guilt for the next two years (yes, we get to do this all over again when the deal expires in 2012); however, this was called a deal for a reason. By making these painful concessions, President Obama effectively negotiated the largest stimulus package of his presidency and he did so with republicans patting him on the back. You sly fox, you.

Aside from the crucial 13-month extension of Unemployment Insurance benefits, he also garnered tax cuts for middle and low-income taxpayers and a 2% payroll tax cut for all wage-earning Americans. Depending on income, people can expect to save anywhere between $100 and $1,000 per year in tax cuts. The President was also able to sweeten the deal with a two-year extension of his college tuition tax credit and the child tax credit, both of which save money for millions of people, especially low income families. And the clean energy measures added in by senate leaders should also give you some serious warm fuzzies. Don’t worry, if nothing mentioned above tickles your fancy, I guarantee you will find something that does by the Monday cloture vote.

It looks as though my initial assessment/freak out was, in fact, unwarranted. To be sure, the President could have benefited from a much better sales pitch (hint: probably not a good idea to classify your supporters as "sanctimonious" during a press briefing intended to gain support) and the idea that republicans made out like bandits will always be disconcerting. However, let us not ignore the good that will come from this deal and let us not turn our back on the President. I have a gut feeling he knows what he’s doing.

PS: Kudos to Sen. Bernie Sanders for standing on the senate floor and speaking intelligently about the state of our nation for nearly nine hours. Jimmy Stewart’s Mr. Smith has absolutely nothing on you, sir.