the Gentle Cabinet: "the electorate will whinge" — no-new-enhancements as the trap

The inflow-side of the Bind dramatized: cut programs and "the electorate will whinge" (Tine's imported Canadian idiom for organized protest), raise taxes and you get "Tax revolt" / "A whingeathon" / "Tea-party." Gentle has sealed his own exit — "look into my eyes: no new enhancements," the Bush-parody pledge — so the ordinary revenue tools are foreclosed by a campaign promise. The political comedy is that the administration has legislated itself into needing a revenue source that no one can recognize as a tax.