Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
President Obama in his Remarks at FEMA Headquarters on Monday made this observation:
Last point I'm going to make: The bill that is being presented to end
the government shutdown reflects Republican priorities. It’s the
Republican budget. The funding levels of this short-term funding bill,
called the CR, is far lower than what Democrats think it should be.
Nevertheless, Democrats are prepared to put the majority of votes on to
reopen the government. So when you hear this notion that Democrats
aren't compromising — we're compromising so much we're willing to
reopen the government at funding levels that reflect Republican wishes,
don't at all reflect our wishes.* * *
So Democrats have said we are willing to pass a bill that reflects the
Republicans’ priorities in terms of funding levels. That's a pretty
significant compromise. What we're not willing to do is to create a
permanent pattern in which unless you get your way the government is
shut down or America defaults. That's not how we do business in this
country, and we're not going to start now.
In fact, Democrats have agreed to the sequester funding levels, not the funding levels agreed to in the Budget Control Act, the law that supposedly set priorities for spending limits. The Tea-Publican economic terrorists have already won. Democrats have agreed to the Ryan budget spending levels that American voters overwhelmingly rejected in the 2012 election.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have said that Weeper of the House John Boehner just won't take "yes" for an answer. Reid and Pelosi: Boehner Won't Take 'Yes' For an Answer.
Why is this? Because the "clean CR" budget does not defund "ObamaCare," and more than three dozen conservative groups, A Federal Budget Crisis Months in the Planning, and the conservative media enertainment complex have been waging a jihad against "ObamaCare" for the past four years. They want their victory over "ObamaCare" that they could not win with voters at the ballot box in 2012. So they are engaging in economic terrorism through governing-by-extortion and threatening to destroy the U.S. and world economy if they do not get their way. They would destroy constitutional democracy in the process.
Do you know who agrees with President Obama, Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi? The über-conservative columnist for The Arizona Republic, Robert Robb, albeit with his usual conservative spin. Negotiations won't help GOP:
The way out for House Republicans is the same as the way not to have
gotten into this mess in the first place. Current law, in the form of
the sequester, is on the side of fiscal discipline. Enact a clean
year-long continuing resolution to fund the government at sequester
levels and a clean one-year increase in the debt limit sufficient to
cover it. And then let Democrats either accept it or be in the position
of shutting down the government and threatening default for more
spending, taxes and debt than current law provides.
Nothing the GOP can hope to achieve in negotiations will come anywhere close to that, politically or substantively.
In other words, take "yes" for an answer. Democrats have already agreed to the sequester funding levels. (Note to Robb: Democrats are not shutting down the government and are not threatening default for more
spending, taxes and debt, as you falsely and maliciously imply. Democrats are making no such demands. Per usual, you are full-o'-crap.)
Let’s negotiate. First give ME everything I want. Then, you cannot bring up anything YOU want. On this basis let’s negotiate. Makes complete sense ” through the looking glass.”