Let’s Negotiate!

Republicans have been demanding negotiations over the government shutdown. A few minutes ago, President Obama gave in to their demand. In a private meeting with House leaders, he said:

Let's negotiate. I understand that you want to repeal Obamacare, or at least delay it for a year. Now let me tell you what I want:

• I want universal health care, with a public option, the way it should have been all along.
• I want universal background checks for gun purchases, including gun shows and everything else.
• I want comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship, plus immediate legal status for dreamers.
• I want you to re-authorize the Voting Rights Act, including a new and improved preclearance provision.
• I want you to repeal the debt-ceiling law, totally and permanently.  If you don't want debt, raise revenue to cover the bills you've run up.
• I want you to authorize closing Guantánamo.
• I want a law that requires all corporations — including non-profits — to disclose all their donors.
• I want an immediate end to the ridiculously regressive "carried interest" tax loophole, the one that Mitt Romney made famous.
• I want an immediate end to all the tax loopholes that Big Oil exploits.
• On top of that, I want a carbon tax.
• I want funding for Head Start at 120% of pre-sequester levels.
• I want funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation at 120% of pre-sequester levels.

I want to see all of that in the CR, as a precondition for ending the government shutdown. If you don't give me what I want, I will veto anything and everything you send me.

Y'all run along now and explain that to your base. Come back tomorrow and we'll negotiate some more.