Ezra Klein - "How the White House sees the shutdown (and debt ceiling!) fight"
In this post, a hot mike caught both McConnell and Paul expressing surprise at the White House's strong stand, which McConnell said that Obama repeated in a closed door meeting. Rand Paul reviews his talking points and buzz words and ridicules the President for failing to poll test his refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014610675
The major problem appears to be that Republican leaders are like Karl Rove during the election starting to drink their own Kool Aid with respect to their views of the Democrats. In this story below, Ezra Klein notes that President Obama is trying to protect the office of the Presidency for himself and future Presidents. Afterall, if the Republicans are successful in extorting concessions, then shutting down the government and threatening default will continue to occur with increasing frequency. Thus, this fight is seen as one to protect American Democracy such that one faction of one party of one house of one branch of government cannot simply dictate terms by threatening to blow up the world economy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/03/how-the-white-house-sees-the-shutdown-and-debt-ceiling-fight/?tid=pm_business_pop
To the White House, the shutdown/debt ceiling fight is quite simple, and quite radical: Republicans are trying to create a new, deeply undemocratic pathway through which a minority party that lost the last election can enact an agenda that would never pass the normal legislative process. It's nothing less than an effort to use the threat of a financial crisis to nullify the results of the last election. And the White House isn't going to let it happen.
The Obama administration bristles at the idea that they've been unwilling to negotiate or compromise. They went on a widely covered "charm offensive" back in the spring. The president held multiple dinners with Senate Republicans. He invited over key House Republicans. The meetings were so frequent that the participants were nicknamed "the diner's club."
Nothing came of those meetings. Republicans still weren't willing to talk on taxes. And so the White House grimly accepted that they couldn't move the dial on spending. The CR, they note, funds the government at the GOP's number of $988 billion. It is, itself, a compromise, and one they don't like. But they made it, because they couldn't pass anything else through Congress. And then the Republicans decided to shut down the government because they couldn't pass a delay or defunding of Obamacare through Congress.
* * *
Top administration officials say that President Obama feels as strongly about this fight as he has about anything in his presidency. He believes that he will be handing his successor a fatally weakened office, and handing the American people an unacceptable risk of future financial crises, if he breaks, or even bends, in the face of Republican demands. And so the White House says that their position is simple, and it will not change: They will not negotiate over substantive policy issues until Republicans end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling.
= new reply since forum marked as read
He is a lot better at "not negotiating" than he is at negotiating....IMHO
