Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:20 am
Democrats are not “giving in” to Republican hostage taking – that is, they are not allowing the country to be held up. The public should be aware that what Democrats are “negotiating” is to protect the country from a Constitutional crisis and to have budget talks that are done as they used to be done. That is, they are not fighting for their agenda. They also didn’t start this fight.
But at this point, Republicans need to entice Democrats aboard because it is Republicans who started this and who stand to lose the most politically from it. They just haven’t faced that reality yet. Somehow it never occurs to the media to ask Republicans what they are willing to give Democrats, instead they nervously ask if Democrats will finally accept the dirty bomb Republicans are offering.
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The country is to beg Republicans to stop destroying us and if they agree, that is their big gift to us.
Even now, Republicans offer things like they’ll end sequestration (notice that in public, they try to blame Democrats for sequestration but it was their idea, their holy grail, they gloated about getting it and now they are using it as leverage) if Democrats make cuts to entitlements. That would be like Democrats imposing their ideology on the country without going through proper channels and then offering Republicans to stop doing that if they could get their policies passed. Where’s the give?
Even the Collins deal that’s being hailed as “bipartisan” is not bipartisan. It extends the debt limit into January, delays the ObamaCare medical device tax for two years, and funds the government for six months at sequester levels. Hello? Where’s the give? And now Republicans are making the outraged rounds on Sunday TV that Democrats won’t cave to them.
House Republicans don’t even realize they are on the ropes. They have foolishly given all of the power to Harry Reid, cutting even poor Mitch McConnell (who was desperate enough to do the right thing even though he’s running for re-election again in 2014 that he was practically pounding on Reid’s door Saturday morning) out of the deal – rendering him almost as powerless as John Boehner.
Republicans keep clamoring for V.P. Joe Biden to step in, because they know that Harry Reid isn’t messing around. They want a “deal” — that is, “deal” as defined by Republicans: They want a Democratic cave to the terrorism. (Old school Democratic deal makers who value crossing the aisle are only setting themselves up to be had by this modern GOP. See the authoritarian model of “negotiating”: Power over/under paradigm.)
Democrats are in the drivers’ seat here, and while I’m not suggesting that they go for blood out of spite, I am suggesting that the American people voted for Democratic fiscal policies, so Democrats should not give in to Republican dirty bombs and blackmail.
Right now, Senate Republicans are getting desperate to pass a DL in order that they are not blamed for the global crash stemming from their party’s refusal to raise the debt ceiling. Yet they want to pass a short term CR at sequestration funding levels. This presumes that they are in a position to offer THEIR AGENDA in order to get Democrats on board. It also presumes that even though they are losing this fight, they are entitled to the spoils.
Republicans are not in that position. And it is their own fault that they waited until they could take these two hostages together before they were willing to “negotiate”. So if it seems unfair that their debt ceiling hostage is blowing up on them and spilling over on their shutdown hostage, well, they took that gamble and it didn’t pay off. They might consider having an exit strategy next time (not a Republican forte, see Iraq).
Republicans had better introduce themselves for the first time to the Democratic agenda. They don’t have to offer revenue; they can offer a Jobs Bill or infrastructure money.
Democrats need to get out a rope and mark it in the center when they start these tugs of war with Republicans so that the public can see how far to the right all of these “negotiations” go, and how they fail to come back to the center let alone the left, due to the “solutions” offered by Republicans under the guise of “forcing compromise” (see the sequester).
Why should Democrats give in for a short term DL? That does nothing for the country, and it does nothing for them. It only enables Republicans to pull this same stunt again. If Democrats are banking on the conventional wisdom of an election year meaning Republicans will want to avoid default, I’m not so sure. The people driving this disaster seem to think that default would be patriotic. Trust nothing, these are uncharted waters.
The media needs to stop enabling these defiant juveniles. No, we’re not going to cheer if they pass a 6 week DL. They need to do their Constitutional duty and shut up about it already. We’re not giving them a parade and no one is going to buy them ice cream afterward either. This is their job and they are paid well to do it. The Constitution mandates that our debt be paid, but Republicans are refusing to do so. They don’t get a reward for this.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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