This Is What I Think

I don’t know what’s going on with the backroom negotiations but neither does the reporters, pundits, and in many cases the politicians.  It’s become an hourly update that cannot be verified.

This morning Joe Scarborough said that the White House is looking at the polls, thinking they have the upper hand so they are sticking it to the republicans. I don’t agree with that because it all goes back to the 2011 negotiations where many democrats thought that Joe Biden and President Obama gave up too much because of the upcoming election.  This time around, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is in charge of the negotiations.

The Republicans want the president and vice-president to get involved in the negotiations because of what they agreed to in the last 2011 fiscal cliff battle.  President Obama is not a good negotiator because he likes to establish long-term goals rather than squabble over short term fixes.  The GOP is always about the next election because they think they will have the upper hand in 2014.  That’s why going for the grand slam (defunding Obamacare) didn’t make a lick of sense.  This current battle is about a short-term fix because the GOP will never agree to raise taxes or increase spending.  They also know that Harry Reid is not a pushover, and he will use the nuclear option (51 votes) to pass a spending bill.  It’s not about letting the Republicans save face because a Senate bill cannot be weighed so heavily to get GOP votes that it makes it difficult for Nancy Pelosi to get all her Democrats to go along.

Joe Scarborough likes to live in the 90s, a time that he was in Congress but things have changed.  He continues to question the leadership of President Obama because he was not involved in the negotiations from the start.  That’s from his line of thinking.  President Obama submitted a budget and he made it clear that he would not negotiate to raise the debt limit.  That’s being involved in the negotiations from the start .  A good leader will use all the tools in the toolbox and will learn from past mistakes.  President Obama has learned that he cannot negotiate in good faith with a group of people that don’t like him and will use any trick in the book to remove him from office or make him a failure.  Present Obama is involved in the negotiations but he using Harry Reid as his proxy.

The cat is out of the bag, the current GOP tactic to shut down the government was thought of this past summer.  Repealing the Affordable Care Act several times was just a warm-up for the upcoming budget battles.  The goal was to overturn the results of the 2012 election.  There’s more to it than Obamacare, and it’s another step toward impeachment.  Louie Goehmer said that going into default is an impeachable offense.  The GOP also said bombing Syria without congressional authority is an impeachable offense. Those people don't know or care about the seriousness of those charges, and they can't do the math because all the House can do is charge the president, the Senate (54 Dems) has to convict.

 This week after being instrumental in shutting down the government, Senator Ted Cruz tried to rile up the veterans by telling them that President Obama does not care about them.  Sunday Chris Wallace asked Senator Manchin of West Virginia, if the administration was purposely closing down the memorial’s to make it hard on the veterans for political reasons. Senator Manchin said no president (Republican or Democrat) would ever stoop that low. Joe Manchin was too kind because he could’ve reminded Chris Wallace, who shut down the government in the first place.

It’s time for Harry Reid to play a little hard ball or these issues and tactics will resurface again in six weeks.  The battle to reopen the government and raise the debt limit for at least a year (to calm the fears and grow our economy), should be over the sequester limits and be neutral on Obamacare.  Republican senator Collins has a good plan but it needs a few tweaks.