OK. All of the President’s negotiating over the “fiscal doohickey”, ever since the election, has come to nothing. John Boehner pulled Plan B out of a hat and his caucus shoved it up his ass. So how is it that people who should know better are calling for (and the President is apparently thinking of) making additional concessions simply to come to some agreement?
Paul Krugman was right. The President approaches a problem, posits a solution, the GOP says “No” without offering an alternative. The President then begins negotiating with himself, throwing away bargaining chips even when no bargaining is going on. He then presents a new plan to GOP, stripped of more things he wanted and trampling some fresh Democratic constituency. Of course the GOP says “No!” again, this time more emphatically.
Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum, or until every last Democrat forgets who it was that won the last two presidential elections.
The solution? Mr. President, quit digging. You aren’t involved in a negotiation, because there’s nobody on the other side. You’re talking in an empty room. If you must say something say this:
“Since Speaker Boehner has been unable to shift his Party at all during these negotiations, I suggest we give Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi all our support in shepherding the Discharge Petition through the House. At the moment it is the only option we have toward reaching any agreement that will avoid sending 98% of working Americans off the fiscal cliff.”
Then please, for the love of God,
STFU and let things play themselves out. You don’t have to be doing something every minute, you don’t have to jump in talking every time there is a drop in the noise level.