The Republican Concept of "Compromise" During Pending Negotiations
So now it is looking like the best case scenario end game to stave off the two headed Republican sponsored monster of government shutdown and defaulting on our fiscal obligations is for Republicans to stand down on their threats for six weeks to allow for "negotiations" with the President to hammer out some reasonable "compromises", while the Republican gun at our collective heads is temporarily holstered. That appears to be the path out of this nightmare that the President is signaling might be available. If that is where all this is taking us it shows just how far Republican extortion tactics have already succeeded in bending our nation's future toward an extreme right wing vision of America. Negotiations without hostages being held or a ransom demanded might sound reasonable enough on the surface, but not if the agenda for such negotiations starts and ends with a list of right wing talking points. And that in a nut shell is the Republican position, and that is fast becoming what conventional wisdom calls “a compromise.”
Virtually every pundit with a minute of air time or an inch of print space in the national media keeps repeating the mantra that to get us out of the crisis Tea Party Republicans have gotten us into those Republicans will need to have a face saving bone thrown to them first. Increasingly the promise of serious negotiations with the President AFTER a short term clean continuing resolution and a short term clean lifting of the debt ceiling is agreed to is viewed as a suitable bone. It’s just a minor shift from the present to future tense. Right now the Republicans are demanding negotiations with the President on their list of issues before releasing their hostages, but if sanity prevails they will agree to negotiations with the President on their list of issues after they release their hostages (temporarily) instead.
What is wrong with this picture? No one in either the media or the Democratic Party has called out the Republicans regarding their fundamental premise of negotiations. It is assumed that if only the Republicans will first put down the gun then they can be rewarded with half a loaf off of their wish list. Or it could be two thirds of a loaf, or maybe only a quarter loaf, but they can definitely expect to get something from their wish list as a reward for acting like adults. That is what passes for compromise now, under the guise of addressing our nation's problems; Republicans setting the agenda for any pending negotiations.
Republicans say that the Affordable Care Act poses a grave threat to the nation and that something must be done to change it; repeal it or at least delay it. They want the U.S. Senate and the American President to bend to their will regarding it. But Democrats say that rapidly escalating gun violence poses a grave threat to the nation and that something must be done to change it; outlaw assault type weapons or at least close the gun show loop hole for background checks. The seemingly inevitable inter-party negotiations that are approaching will likely include revisiting the Affordable Care Act, but common sense gun safety measures, that won’t be on the Republican prepared table.
The Republicans claim that our current budget deficits pose a grave threat to the nation and something must be done to cut them further. They want further cuts in spending and they want cuts in the economic safety net that tens of millions of Americans depend on. While claiming that current deficits are a huge problem, Republicans accept only one means to deal with them; slash government spending. Republicans refuse to even consider measures that would increase revenue to the government and reduce our deficits that way. Republicans want to negotiate with the President on new cuts only. To restore any sequestration cuts to the Pentagon more money will need to be taken from programs that are dear to the Democratic Party. That is the Republican version of compromise.
Meanwhile Democrats claim that continuing high unemployment poses a grave thereat to the nation and that measures must be taken to bring that unemployment down. Most leading economists agree with the Democrats, as does the American public according to countless polls. Rather than laying off more workers to shave further money off of the Federal budget, Democrats believe we need more government funded jobs programs, both in the public and private sectors. Democrats believe it is the role of government to fill the void when the private sector is incapable of responding to the public need. By jump starting the economy with new government spending in such times, resultant increased economic activity ultimately will more than repay those outlays in future tax revenues.
That’s what Democrats tend to believe, Republicans tend to believe otherwise. But despite controlling the Senate and the Presidency, despite Obama winning the 2012 election and having Democrats pick up seats in both houses of Congress, despite Democrats winning actually winning the combined popular vote for all districts in the House of Representatives, no new jobs bill will be subject to discussion under the Republican version of “compromise”. Only items on the Republican wish list are subject to negotiation in the talks Republicans are demanding. Today they demand that those talks commence before they release any hostages; but maybe, just maybe, they can be persuaded to put them off until after they suspend their extortion efforts. According to House Republicans that would be tantamount to a full surrender on their part.
And so the politics of compromise has been framed. Republicans are told to surrender when they are asked to restore normality to our governing process and not use severe economic disruption and immediate human pain to provide leverage for their side. The Republicans will claim they have compromised tremendously just to agree to that much. What, they will say, do we get in return? Expect Democrats to let Republicans determine the agenda for future talks. Expect Democrats to agree to no new taxes but further spending cuts. Expect the Affordable Care Act to be on the table, expect Social Security cuts to be on the table. Expect common sense gun safety measures, job creation, and Immigration reform to be decidedly off the table. Starting there, as they say, each side will have to “give up a little”. Who says Republican extortion won’t work?
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