White House: Fiscal Cliff Talks ‘Constructive’
Source: TPM
IGOR BOBIC 12:37 PM EST, FRIDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2012
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Obama and top congressional leaders had a "constructive meeting" at the White House on Friday on the so-called "fiscal cliff," and that such conversations would continue while the president travels to Asia later this month:
Today, the President met with the bipartisan, bicameral leadership of Congress at the White House for over an hour. The President and the leadership had a constructive meeting and agreed to do everything possible to find a solution that averts the so-called “fiscal cliff,” and to work together to find a balanced approach to reduce our deficit that includes both revenues and cuts in spending and encourages our long-term economic and job growth. Both sides agreed that while there may be differences in our preferred approaches, we will continue a constructive process to find a solution and come to a conclusion as soon as possible. Members of the President’s senior team will continue meetings and discussions with Members of Congress and staff over the next several days while the President travels in Asia.
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Read more: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/white-house-fiscal-cliff-talks-constructive
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and was immediately transported to a labor negotiation that I was involved with many years ago. (I was on the Labor side of the table)
We went into the negotiations with management full of bluster and fury ... demanding wage and benefit give-backs and draconian work-rule changes, and swearing that if we didn't cede to their demands, it would be doom ... doom I tell you.
But we went into the negotiations with management's entire strategy (thank you, Ms. Jenny ... a frequently shat upon "just a secretary"
and the knowledge of a pending huge and time sensitive service contract (thank you, Mark ... a Business Development Agent, from a 3rd generation Union family).
I recall we came out of the first day's negotiation saying the meeting was "constructive" and that we were "optimistic that we could come to terms in short order" and management came out of the meeting saying "No Comment."
At the end of negotiations (three days later), we put to the membership a contract that entailed no wage cuts, no loss of benefits, no work-rule changes; but the creation of a significant profit-sharing pool.
Maybe it's wishful thinking; but language matters.
