No victory lap for Obama

Obama Immediately Calls For Tax Code Reform: Wealthy & Corporations Must Pay ‘Fair Share’

(By Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post) - An unsmiling President Obama, alone at a podium in the Rose Garden, with only the press corps present, delivered the equivalent of a campaign speech after Senate passage of the debt-ceiling bill. He sounded, as is his wont these days, defensive. He obviously was pitching to his disgruntled base. He only briefly referred to “a long and contentious debate,” recognizing it as an “important first step to ensuring we live within our means.” From there it was catnip for the left. He touted the room still left in the budget for more domestic “investment.” He insisted that he’d get his “balanced approach” with plenty of tax hits to “billionaires and oil companies.”