Negotiation Kabuki

Negotiation Kabuki

by digby

Ok, now they're just getting silly:

The White House and congressional Democrats are balking at the idea, floated by House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday, that changes to the president's signature health care law should be on the table during lame-duck talks over taxes and the deficit.

An administration official told The Huffington Post that the president would oppose involving the Affordable Care Act in the negotiations taking place to stave off the so-called "fiscal cliff." A top Senate Democratic aide called the idea "absolutely" a non-starter.

"And they know that, so its counterproductive to even offer it," the aide added.

Another Senate Democratic aide did concede that some changes to the Affordable Care Act could be made as part of a grand-bargain deal that would replace the expiring Bush-era tax cuts and the $1 trillion in spending cuts included in the sequester. But those changes would not alter the purpose and reach of the law "in any meaningful way."

Sometimes negotiation kabuki is believable and sometimes it isn't. This time it isn't. Injecting Obamacare into the mix is ridiculous, but it does serve as something that the GOP can "give up" in exchange for something the Democrats can give up. It remains to be seen whether anyone's really giving up anything.

I'm actually becoming more hopeful. This negotiation has all the hallmarks of other phony negotiations. I would not be surprised to see a six month extension of all the tax cuts with a "firm" trigger to slash spending if they don't come up with a deal. In other words, an extension of the sequester only on worse terms for the Democrats (just because...)

The great God of the Free market has been quiescent thus far so they probably think they will have some time. And it's possible the Dems can extract some important stuff in this round, like some reworking of the payroll tax cut and Unemployment Insurance. If they truly wanted to protect SS and Medicare they'd run out this string, but I don't honestly think they do, so that's probably all we can hope for for now.

But who knows? And I can't believe I'm saying this, but Grover Norquist is right: these negotiations should be on C-SPAN.Trying to read tea leaves of negotiations being done behind closed doors by a bunch of politicians who are being button-holed by lobbyists and big donors all day long isn't what I'd call a democracy. The people just spoke in the Big Poll and nobody seems to give a damn what they said.

Update: Greg Sargent has more ...