"The other big political event that happened in December was there was a big fight in Washington over the payroll tax. After protecting hedge fund managers, oil companies and heiresses, Republicans proudly found a group they were willing to tax – employees. And somehow Obama was the one fighting to lower taxes, and the insanely anti-tax Republicans were the ones fighting to raise them, because, no matter what the issue, the prime directive is they can never agree with Obama. But Democrats swelled with pride when the president put his foot down and told Republicans, "It's your way or the highway.""