[cynic hat on]
Obama never intended this bill to pass. It was re-election fodder designed to definitely prove how worthless the republicans are. To wit, he gave up on his "rich people making over 250 thousand a year" schtick and has shifted his target to a 5.4% increase tax increase on people making over a cool mil. And republicans are still dead-set against it. The rest of the bill is chock full of tax cuts and spending cuts and minor increases in unemployment programs. It's not a liberal bill at all; Obama has moved so far to the right that people don't even realize how typical this bill would have been for Bush.
I don't think Obama had any intention of this thing passing, I think he just slapped it together to make the opposition look bad for the upcoming election. Hell, at this point he could submit a bill that banned abortion and mandated free guns for everyone and republicans would still find something wrong with it.
Anyway, it annoys me that he's already playing the re-election campaign. It annoys me that he's moved so far to the right in order to compromise with lunatics. It annoys me that both parties continue to shove polarizing figures into the spotlight in order to ensure that the cycle continues.
+1 on feeling bad for the country.
[cynic hat off]