I think the untold story of the Obama era is that he offered Grand Bargains to Republicans on issues they claim to care about, and on issues the media generally pretends they care about, that they don't actually care about. Whether this was eleventy-dimensional chess or whether the Obama administration didn't actually understand what Republicans care about is an exercise left to the reader, but while the WaPo/"center right nation"/"objective journalist" crowd wants to cut your granny's Social Security check, Republicans don't actually give a shit. Sure they'd gut it if they could, but they can't, and they certainly don't want to take responsibility for trimming it. Cutting taxes for rich people is really all they care about.