The Fiscal Cliff - why is reaching a deal so hard?

As we know, the GOP and the Democrats are having a hard time agreeing upon the specifics of a budget deal that would allow us to avoid the (perhaps silly-named) "fiscal cliff."  Why is this?  Is it because both are valiently fighting for specific policies that are true to their constituencies' wants and desires? 

Not exactly.  In fact, the reality is, neither of their constituencies really, truly wants a deal of the kind that needs to be made.  That creates a lot of problems.

Everybody likes lower taxes for themselves.  Everybody also likes government spending that benefits them.  Therefore, the only tax hikes that people tend to like are ones that don't impact themselves (which is why the narrow "tax on the wealthy" is so popular among the unwealthy).  At the same time, people love theoretical cuts in spending on things that they believe (albeit often naively) only benefit other people, but when it involves spending near to their own hearts, suddenly that spending is vital!

This piece from Reason Magazine frames things up very nicely, and I highly recommend that anyone interested in this topic give it a quick read.

In essence, the GOP wants spending cuts in theory, but doesn't want to take the blame for proposing specific spending cuts (as even the majority of Republican voters oppose those cuts, and the public at large really hates those cuts).  So they are trying to get the Democrats to be the ones to list specific cuts.  Of course, the Democrats are refusing to do that and are demanding that the GOP provide the list of specific cuts, and then be accountable for them.  Neither party wants to be the "bad guy" that cuts stuff that most of the voters like.

At the same time, the Democrats certainly aren't willing to fall on the sword with any bold proposals on tax increases, either.  They stick to the idea that only wealthy people should see any tax hikes, even though a broader tax hike would generate a lot more revenue.  Politically, they are also being wusses, as they know that a majority of the voters support taxes on the rich (and a huge portion of those voters are presumably not rich themselves), so they just cherry pick the policy that they know polls well and refuse to consider anything else.

So we have two parties that are both afraid to propose any specific policies that don't poll well.  Of course, to reach a deal of any significance, they MUST include policies that don't poll well.

So this whole debate is partially about two sides sticking to their ideological guns (even though the GOP is in a horrible bargaining position, and everyone knows it, and doesn't really have much leverage to stick to any negotiating tactic too long), the larger and more immediate problem that is keeping us from seeing a real deal moving forward is the fact that neither party has had the policial courage to embrace policies that are good policies and good for the country, but are bad politics for their own political self-interests.