What the President is doing is handing the Rethuglicans their collective fat ass one more time.
What the President really wants in the long run, and this is a man who thinks long term, is to be the Democratic version of Reagan, i.e. reversing the flow of recent electoral history and making the Democratic Party the owner of executive power for the next few decades. If that requires temporizing and compromising with a recalcitrant and and batshit-crazy House majority it will be worthwhile in the long run.
The President has already made significant advances in obtaining his goal.
Merely by being elected with a majority of the vote twice he has achieved what no other Democrat has since FDR. And in so doing has pulled back the curtain on the Republican base exposing them to be the unruly horde of bigots, cranks, and clueless shills for the rich we here on the left have always known they were. Barack Obama drives them nuts and independents see that.