Compromising Position
Robert Reich as a nice little post about why you don’t negotiate with right-wing bullies. If you start by doing all of the compromising, you end up with violence.
Paul Krugman talks about essentially the same thing in the Age of Diminished Expectations
I’m sorry to say it, but I expect the worst from the upcoming presidential speech on deficit reduction. OK, maybe not the worst; I don’t think he’ll call for privatizing Medicare, but who knows? But I do expect a lot of preemptive concessions to the Republicans, which will, as usual, be the starting point for further concessions.
The Republicans have no reason to compromise, because they know that Obama will fold and call it a “compromise”. John Boehner has made that clear:
On Saturday night House Speaker John Boehner declared, “The president says, ‘I want you to send me a clean bill.’ Guess what, Mr. President. Not a chance you’re going to get a clean bill.”
The “bill” under discussion is raising the debt limit, and the Republicans are going to use that vote to push through all kinds of ideological garbage that will not help the economy, and sure as hell won’t reduce the deficit.
As a matter of fact on American Public Media’s Marketplace, Heidi Moore covers what business is doing in reaction to the Republican tactics – Debt debate forces companies to ask: What if?
This Republican game of “chicken” has already increased the deficit by raising the interest on long-term US bonds. The “Austerity Hysteria” has caused analysts to reduce their predictions for the growth of the GDP in the first quarter, and businesses and banks will probably start hoarding even more money.
WalMart has a streak going – 7 bad quarters in a row. About that recovery …
5 comments
There is no recovery.
And the trick this time is that the Rethugs are working overtime to stop any chance of actually having one anytime soon.
Because they assumed the populace is still asleep at the switch and will blame Obama and elect whatever ‘thug they run in 2012.
And they may still be correct about that.
Thanks for continuing your vigilance on this most important national problem.
Reich’s personal anecdote reminded me of a very similar incident in my own childhood, in which I learned a most important lesson: stand up to bullies, and they’ll back off. Of course, the converse is a lesson Obama seems determined to teach us about on every significant issue.
At this point, I say, confront them with it. Tell them what they can do with their ideological agenda. Let them refuse to raise the debt limit. Let’s see how many corporate, uh, clients the GOP still has left after the world begins dealing with us as a country that defaults on its debt.
Yes, I fully understand the seriousness of the matter. I also understand that there is only one effective way to deal with bullies. It should have been employed much earlier, but as Obama made sure it wasn’t, it’s time to start right now.
Someone should tell Zero that it is a long-standing American policy that we don’t negotiate with terrorists.
I would hope that the “masters of the universe” take Boehner aside and explain reality to him. He should know that he can play with the budget all he wants, but the US must pay its bills.
Suzan, my parents and grandparents lived through the Depression. My Mother is still here to yell at her television every time the Republicans pull something like this. She was a bookkeeper for five decades and knows about handling a budget and the financial side of business. She didn’t lose any money during the meltdown, because she was already “liquid” when it hit. She understands the “real economy” from working in it, and thinks that all of the politicians are worthless. She worked primarily in supermarkets, and wouldn’t hire any of the current Congresscritters to bag groceries.
Having been there, she knows what worked the last time, and is totally outdone that they haven’t been using the same tools and programs again.
Uhm, what, exactly, does the term “debt limit” mean anyhow? Congress sent Zero a budget. The budget authorized by Congress gives him authority to spend a certain amount and tax a certain amount, which is what the Constitution gives Congress the power to do. I see nothing in the Constitution that says Zero can’t borrow the money it takes to cover the difference between spending and taxing. Congress may have passed such a law at some point in the past, but that’s like Congress passing a law stating that the value of pi is exactly 3.0 — you can’t legislate reality.
Thinking about President Andrew Jackson saying, when he got an adverse court ruling, “Mr. Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it” and doing exactly what he wanted to do. And that was a far more clear-cut case of violating the Constitution, since he was depriving thousands of people of their ancestral property without compensation…
Of course, Andrew Jackson had balls. I haven’t seen any indication that Zero has anything down there other than a void. Well, there’s the girls, but perhaps he got castrated sometime between then and now?
– Badtux the Baffled Penguin
Our problem, Badtux, is that we recognize the world as it is, and can read.
The money has been appropriated, so Congress has already agreed to spend it. If spending it meant exceeding some limit, they shouldn’t have appropriated it if they didn’t want the limit exceeded. If they don’t want more borrowing, they should raise the revenue to cover what they are spending.
Treasury should just stop issuing T-Bills and just “print” the necessary money to cover what Congress has spent. That is Constitutional, and has the advantage of making a lot of people even more confused.