The hypocrisy among Republicans is breathtaking. In the spring, they demanded a spending offset for an extension of federal unemployment benefits, which would be temporary and cost just $9.7 billion. That’s less than 2 percent of what the tax extenders would cost. They also fought for $39 billion in food stamp cuts, insisting the reductions were essential for fiscal balance.

For liberals, the problem isn’t simply what the deal would do to the deficit. It’s what the deal wouldn’t do for causes that liberals value. If Politico’s report is correct—and, to be fair, there’s no way to know for sure—they’ve accepted this deal while getting almost nothing in return. One of the only tax breaks that the deal will not extend is the wind production credit, which Republicans oppose, but has played an instrumental role in making the production of wind energy more economically viable. That tax break would be phased out over the next few years.

The reported agreement also excludes expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. The 2009 reforms to those two credits allowed more low-income Americans to qualify and benefit from them. Those provisions, which aren’t technically part of the tax extenders, expire in 2017. If that happens, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities projects, 16 million people will fall into—or deeper into—poverty. The extenders deal represented a perfect vehicle to make those provisions permanent.

The politics of this are hard to understand, at least for Democrats. Did the midterm elections signal that voters are eager for the government to give $400 billion in tax credits to Big Business? Of course not. And if the deficit picture gets worse, Republicans are sure to cite that as further reason to oppose future Democratic legislation. You can count upon Republicans to deny their own responsibility for the higher deficits—and plenty of media complicity, allowing the GOP to get away with it.