Byron York‘s latest Washington Examiner article explores the relative willingness of Republicans and Democrats to compromise in the debt-limit debate.

For the Tea Party Republicans who make up a significant part of the House GOP caucus, Boehner’s proposal is a significant retreat from “Cut, Cap and Balance.” Those who support the Boehner proposal, which is formally known as the Budget Control Act, consider it a major compromise — something they are backing only after being convinced that their first choice could never pass the Senate.

Throughout the debt dispute, President Obama has talked a lot about compromise. In his speech to the nation Monday, he used the word six times, saying America “has always been a grand experiment in compromise” but that in Washington lately, “compromise has become a dirty word.” Obama’s appearance at a University of Maryland town hall a few days before was a virtual seminar on compromise.

While Obama preaches the virtues of compromise, his Democratic allies and surrogates are bashing Republicans for rejecting what the White House characterizes as earnest, good-faith efforts to find common ground. “I hope that Speaker Boehner and [Minority] Leader McConnell will reconsider their intransigence,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a few days ago. “Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default.” (At the same time, Reid has been issuing absolute, inflexible statements like, “I will not support any short-term agreement.”)

But the fact is, the Republicans who admitted defeat on “Cut, Cap and Balance” showed a unmistakable willingness to compromise. “The president has asked us to compromise,” House Minority Leader Eric Cantor said Thursday afternoon. “We have compromised.”

What about Obama? His compromises, if any, are more difficult to discern because the White House has been militantly secretive about its position.