On the perils of wingnut logic and negotiating with yourself
by digby
This negotiatin' stuff is hard. I suspect it's largely a matter of instinct. And it's always interesting to see how people on all sides of a deal see it after the fact.
Here's an example from the comments to this post by Elias Isquith. This was a conservative commenter's response. The subject he's addressing is the debt deal.
A RANDOM CONSERVATIVE COMMENTER:
For months and months none of the Demo’s who matter would agree to any spending cuts at all without tax increases, which the GOP had made clear for some time were not on the table. Ie, they were in favor of the “balanced approach,” fetishizing tax hikes in spite of the fact that there was already $1T in cuts relative to the President’s February budget that was agreed to and more or less not controversial.
The reason this fetish exists because the Demo mentality has really strong hangups toward budget cuts. And psychologically, if they’re going to do budget cuts, they feel like they have to get something in return. This was the foundation of the stalemate, until one week before D-day, Harry Reid came out in favor of the Reid plan and that’s more or less what got done.
THE REPLY:
Yes, shockingly, in compromise, both sides give up something.
THE RANDOM CONSERVATIVE COMMENTER AGAIN:
This doesn’t fly. You don’t have to compromise if both parties want the same thing. The Dems represented that they wanted, or at least were willing to accept budget cuts. Great, our team wanted budget cuts too.
The Dems wanted the GOP to unpack their layers of denial around the welfare state ratchet. But that at least isn’t the GOP’s issue. Demo’s got to walk that lonesome valley by themselves.
I assume this person is a lawyer. Or, at least, he or she should be.
Yes, it's convoluted. But you can see the twisted logic in it, right?
Tonight we're getting some details on the White House's new deficit reduction plan. Ezra Klein Tweets:
GOP reaction to Obama's plan is that it is not a compromise plan, and that's true. But where's their compromise plan?
Except it is a compromise plan. It's 50% tax increases and 50% spending cuts (which the president's aide unironically characterizes as "fair and balanced.")I think that to most Democrats that represents a big compromise especially since it comes on top of 1.2 trillion in cuts in the debt deal. And most of them just don't think it's a good idea to cut government so radically in a time of such slow growth.
Of course, according to right wing logic, that means that only the spending cuts should be passed since that's what both parties agree on.
More tomorrow on the president's deficit plan. Since it's highly unlikely to be implemented, I think it's a political document and is best judged in those terms.
Update: Roy Edroso says, Rightbloggers Defend Rich Bastards from Obama's Tax Plan. Figures.
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