WSJ: Looks like the president is not so spineless after all

[democrattotheend]

The article is behind the paywall but parts of it are excerpted on Political Wire and since I discovered this morning that my grad school tuition dollars get me free access to WSJ through my school's website, I thought I would post a few more excerpts in keeping with DU policy:

He and Mr. Obama didn't sit down together for another 10 days. The session began genially. But tension quickly emerged over the president's call to include increasing the U.S.'s borrowing limit in any final package.

Responded Mr. Boehner: "I've found in my life that everything I've ever wanted has come with price." Mr. Obama told the speaker he wasn't willing to play games with the debt ceiling.

...

Mr. Obama insisted on raising tax rates for those with household income above $250,000. The House GOP wanted significant spending cuts and fundamental changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs in exchange for new tax revenue.

The president repeatedly reminded Mr. Boehner of the election results: "You're asking me to accept Mitt Romney's tax plan. Why would I do that?" At another point, the speaker noted his GOP majority would also return next year.

...
Mr. Boehner said he wanted a deal along the lines of what the two men had negotiated in the summer of 2011 in a fight over raising the debt ceiling. "You missed your opportunity on that," the president told him.

I wish I could post more, but the bottom line is, the president told Boehner he wasn't getting the deal he would have gotten in July of 2011, he refused to budge below $1.2 trillion in revenue, he pointed out to Boehner that he gets $800 billion "for free" if nothing is done before Jan. 1, and he stood firm and got Boehner to drop his demand to raise the Medicare age.

We might not like what he did offer, but if this article is right, the president has been bargaining a lot harder than most of us thought. This also makes me think I was right that the offer the White House leaked might have been made or at least leaked knowing Boehner couldn't get the votes for it.

EDIT: Turns out you can access the whole thing if you go to it through Google. https://www.google.com/search?q=How+'Cliff'+Talks+Hit+the+Wall&sugexp=chrome,mod=6&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[splat]

1. Great story! You can blast through the paywall to read it...

... by typing the actual headline into Google:

How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall

[democrattotheend]

2. Argh, now I feel dumb

The link on Political Wire wasn't working, but you are absolutely right. When I tried linking it it didn't even show an excerpt, but when I googled it I got the whole thing.

[LonePirate]

3. Obama seems to prefer the cliff to any deal concocted by Boehner and the Repubs.

Which is fine by me.

[democrattotheend]

4. Sort of

From what I read on Politico, he would prefer a larger deal that avoids the cliff and a showdown over the debt ceiling. But he's not going to offer them what he offered in July 2011: he won the election and he knows his hand is stronger now. And I think he's willing to go over the cliff rather than take a bad deal. I think his leaking of the $400,000 offer was designed to make sure the GOP takes the blame if we go over.

Before saying that going over the cliff is "fine by you", I encourage you to read this diary on Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/20/1172583/-Over-the-cliff-I-go-Not-laughing

[corkhead]

5. There are some military contractor employees who are probably not having a merry Christmas either

unfortunate collateral damage.

[ArcticFox]

15. So?

Get a real job. Military contractors should never have been in the first place.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Thanks. Finally. Someone with a straight answer.

[heaven05]

7. kewl

[coldbeer]

8. Obama won the first debate

Romney came out etch-a-sketch and what was Obama to
debate about? Romney did a 180 and stuck himself.

[Dalai_1]

9. Kick n/t

[phleshdef]

10. Pretty much blows the "bad negotiator" narrative out of the fucking water.

[mick063]

11. In my mind

Caving on SS is still caving.


Compromising with idiots that have attempted to destroy the Presidency at every turn. Idiots that put Grover Norquist above the American citizen.


I donated $500 bucks to Obama. Never again will I donate to Democrats. I'm done with them. Philosophically, they are the GOP of 15 years ago. In the future, I will donate to the likes of Bernie Sanders exclusively.


Obama won. He is negotiating with groveling idiots and negotiating with them as if they have credible arguments.

My perspective of Obama has dramatically changed more in the last two weeks than in the previous four years. Two weeks ago I thought he could be the best President of my lifetime. I certainly don't believe that any more.

[CTyankee]

12. I may be wrong but what I got from this was that Obama made the SS offer knowing

that Boehner probably wouldn't be able to take it and would be at the very least humiliated by the Tea Party Caucus (perhaps even costing him his Speaker title). And that now not only is the $400,000 offer off the table, so is the SS deal. So it MAY have been a strategic move by Obama, altho it sure was a gamble.

We can only wait and see how this thing plays itself out...

[democrattotheend]

13. I hope you are right

However, I recognize that there is little chance the president will get the tax cut for the middle class, an extension of unemployment benefits, the Medicare doc fix, AMT patch, and the debt ceiling raised without giving something on entitlements, either now or in February. And of what the House Republicans will accept, he probably thinks chained CPI is the least bad option.

[CTyankee]

14. that seems to be the consensus with lots of talking heads. But who knows?

If he's really threatening them with taking it to the people, the repubs might just get serious and see the handwriting on the wall for 2014 in the House elections. If he barnstorms their districts and gets people riled up the repubs in Congress might learn to sing a different tune...