In negotiations over a budget deal that would also raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, both sides are digging in.

Vice President Joe Biden wants higher taxes. According to Biden, “If we could agree on the pieces most important to us Democrats, revenue, we’re prepared to agree on some of the things that you (Republicans) want in discretionary spending.”

House Speaker John Boehner, on the other hand, told reporters, “These conversations could continue if they take the tax hikes out of the conversation.” He added, “A tax hike cannot pass the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s not just a bad idea — it doesn’t have the votes, and it can’t happen.”

Both parties are offering a choice, not an echo. And this debate, which pits cutting spending v. raising taxes, is one the GOP should win, and which they will win.

Barack Obama (whose latest approval rating in Gallup is down to 43 percent) continues to take his party back to its liberal, pre-Clinton days: massive spending, larger and more centralized government, higher taxes. We know what happened to Democrats back then. We know what happened to Democrats in the 2010 mid-term election. And I think we’re getting a pretty good sense of what will happen to them in 2012.