Don't tease the panther
by digby
Blah, blah, blah:
A top adviser to President Barack Obama on Friday said Republicans will have plenty of negotiating leverage to help strike a budget deal even if they take the threat of a government default off the table.
National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling downplayed the idea that Republicans would be “surrendering” if they agree to raise the debt ceiling without receiving any policy concessions from Democrats.
“When you have divided government, it is not correct that one side has to feel that if they were to open the government or take away the threat of default, they somehow lose their leverage,” Sperling said at conference hosted by the the Institute of International Finance, a bank trade group. “In divided government, you by definition have leverage because each side has gains and policy achievements that they cannot achieve without the cooperation of the other side.”
[...]
He reiterated that the president will not negotiate with Republicans under the threat of default but that once this is out of the way, the White House stands ready to negotiate a budget deal — large, small or medium.
Actually this seems wise on some level. Democratic triumphalism is a big danger here. If they are on the verge of ending the crisis (even temporarily), the last they should do is rub the GOP's nose in it before the deal is done.
On the other hand, Jay Carney put it a little bit differently earlier in a way that doesn't make much sense to me. He said that they would sign on to a "clean" lift of the debt ceiling and the CR even if it was temporary. But he said they would not agree to do that with any promise to negotiate. But obviously, they will be in exactly the same position 6 weeks from now if they don't come to some agreement, so any extension is a tacit agreement to negotiate. I get that they believe it's extremely important not to reward this debt ceiling gambit. But whether they like it or not, any agreements they make with the Republicans will result in Republicans believing they won something by doing it. What am I missing?
The only thing that will stop them from doing this again is for them to lose many seats in the next election. I'm not sure why people are fooling themselves into believing otherwise.
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