You want real deficit reduction? Try this...

Like most progressives, I've been pleased to witness Obama thus far refusing to negotiate with himself in the fiscal cliff battle. With his tax proposals and modest proposed spending cuts on the table -- a package derived from his 2013 budget -- it would seem to make sense to let Republicans detail the deeper entitlement cuts they say they want. As Paul Krugman highlights today, the Republican leadership seems unwilling to go on record proposing deep, substantive cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. So the progressive consensus is clear: let them put up or shut up.

Nonetheless, there remain calls among some Obama supporters -- e.g., natch, Andrew Sullivan -- for Obama to "seize the center" and propose more thoroughgoing plans to restrain long-term spending.  And there may in fact be political opportunity for him in doing so -- on his own terms.