President Obama and the Dems in congress may very well be the worst negotiators the country has ever seen. I'll bet many of them own used cars that were only driven by little old ladies on Sundays, and many more proudly display their deeds that show they are the owners of the Brooklyn bridge.
Maybe they should leave the Democratic party and form their own PT Barnum party, where "there's a sucker born every minute".
Let's take a look at some of the high points of their negotiating prowess.
The 2011 Debt Ceiling Crises.
Here we have a Libertarian/Republican party that is hell bent on crushing government so they can get rid of all those pesky regulations and regulators who stop them from screwing every single person who comes near any of their business dealings, and who stop them from stripping the planet bare of it's resources and leaving behind an uninhabitable moonscape for the 47% moochers to try and survive on.
So they take the country hostage by saying they will force the country to default on it's bills unless Obama and the Dems slash the size of government. But Obama and the Dems showed the country exactly how to negotiate with economic terrorists. In an unbelievable deal that makes all the Tea baggers with the crazy signs look like Pulitzer prize candidates, the Dems made a complete and total cave in sound like a grand victory in a game of 11 dimensional chess. Even many here at DailyKos thought this was a great victory, despite Boehner bragging about getting 98% of what he wanted, while many of us did a facepalm over the stupidity of the deal.
And what was the deal? The Dems offered to cut about $1 trillion from the budget, and if the Republicans didn't offer any revenue increases, like putting the sword of Damocles over their heads, they threatened to cut another $1.2 trillion! Wow! What a threat! Watch out! If you don't give us what we want, we'll give you a lot more of what YOU want!
But wait, you don't think it can get any stupider than this?
The Fiscal Cliff and Bush Tax Cuts
Now the one bargaining chip Obama and the Dems had that was really, really big, was the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. They didn't have to do a damn thing, the cuts would expire, and then they would be in a great bargaining position to restore some of the tax cuts in trade for a LAW that would prevent anyone from ever holding the country hostage again, or maybe some desperately needed job creating fiscal stimulus, or for many other things that would help the 99%. Even the Repugs knew this was huge chip Obama and the Dems had.
So how did Obama and Harry Reid use this bargaining chip? They gave the economic terrorists about 80% of what they wanted, in trade for an extension of unemployment benefits and a 2 month delay of the sequestration. Boy did they fool the Republicans, instead of giving them 98% of what they wanted like back in 2011, they only gave them 80% of what they wanted! That'll show those Repugs how to negotiate a deal!
And here we go again.
President Obama and the Dem leadership are again talking about A Grand Bargain, or the conservative boot to progressive ass deal as some might consider it.
And what would be in the "Grand Bargain"? According to Senator Harkin;
In a meeting yesterday with Senate Democrats, Obama was noncommittal when asked whether he would resist raising the eligibility ages for Medicare or Social Security, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin told reporters. “I didn’t hear a commitment” to preserve the Medicare eligibility age of 65, Harkin said.
So let's give the President and the Dem leaders the benefit of the doubt. Let's say they are able to reach a "Grand Bargain", and give the Republicans $2 in cuts for every $1 in revenue. Should we now believe that this is the end? We have now reached fiscal nirvana and the Republicans will now go back to being a loyal opposition party rather than economic terrorists hell bent on bringing down the government of the United States of America?
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR F#$%*NG MIND!!!
Given the absolute dishonesty in the way the Republicans ran their campaigns, the corrupting laws they passed to benefit their Oligarch masters, their anti-democracy efforts to prevent people from voting and to rig elections, and their constant threats to bring down the world's economy, does anyone in their right mind truly believe the Republicans won't be back in a few months and force us through this same bull shit again?!
The Republicans are slowly, but successfully, turning the U.S. into a 3rd world country and bringing us a 2nd Gilded age. The gutless Dems are slowly surrendering our children's future with every capitulation at every hostage taking situation. We have to force our Democratic politicians to draw a line in the sand. Let the Republicans take us over the fiscal cliff, and let the American people decide once and for all!
It's time to hit the phones and tell your Democratic representatives that we didn't vote for them to make America a 3rd world country a bit slower than what a Republican would.