Apr 09 2011
Boehner’s Amazing Negotiation Wins
Update: Even more liberal gnashing of teeth:
These budget negotiations were a giant win for the Republican Party. President Obama initially cut $40 billion from his own budget proposal — and he got absolutely no credit for that. … The Republicans claimed in February that they wanted $32 billion in cuts from that point on. About a week ago, the president came out an announced that they had given the Republicans another $33 billion in cuts — a billion more than they originally asked for. And still the Republicans wanted more.
Why not? They’re dealing with the world’s worst negotiator, …
Update: If you doubt Boehner did not have a smashing win last night, then go read how demoralized and angry the left is and ask yourself why the left could be whinging so hard if Boehner had not won?
Update: From American Thinker, a good article and a great political cartoon:
Yep, a picture is still worth a thousand words – end update
If you are only fixated on the budget reduction number ($38.5B) that the GOP won over the next 6 months as part of the deal to avert a shutdown, then you probably don’t know the federal government as well as you think. My hat is off to Speaker Boehner – that was one hell of a negotiating feat he pulled off! He wrung more out of Reid and Obama than I ever thought possible. And he exposed how weak a negotiator our young and inexperienced President truly is. Let me explain.
The budget number is pretty good, mainly because it kills programs instead of lowering their budgets for 6 months. so those 6 month numbers expand and grow in the coming years:
The agreement will immediately cut $38.5 billion in federal spending – the largest spending cut in American history in terms of dollars …
The agreement begins to reverse the “stimulus” spending binge that began in 2009 …
The Obama administration has sought increased federal funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – money that could be used to hire additional agents to enforce the administration’s agenda on a variety of issues. This increased funding is denied in the agreement.
Obama even admitted in his speech infrastructure projects were being ‘delayed’ (i.e., de-funded in 2011). Once de-funded, they will not be back any time soon. As fox News reports, this is a lot farther than the Democrats said they would be willing to go when this all started.
But that is just some icing on the cake. There never was a big budget win in this, even at the paltry $100 billion the Tea Party wanted. Not when you are talking a $3.8 trillion budget with a $1.6 trillion deficit. As Karl Rove noted, all the discretionary spending and some of the mandatory is now being borrowed. So the money was never the prize.
However, Boehner must have had an incredible stick in those negotiations, because Reid and Obama agreed to put things to vote in the Senate which everyone deemed impossible just last week. That is the truly amazing part of what Boehner pulled off yesterday (back to the original link):
The agreement reached with Senate Democrats guarantees a Senate debate and vote on legislation that would repeal President Obama’s government takeover of health care in its entirety. The House passed such legislation in January as part of the Pledge to America.
…
The agreement with Senate Democrats guarantees a Senate debate and vote on legislation that would end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The last thing Reid or Obama want is a vote in the senate on Obamacare (or Planned Parenthood). But now they are going to have to vote and this is huge. If this happens, and 4 of those 23 red-state Democrats up for reelection in 2012 vote against Obamacare, then the President will have to veto a bipartisan bill that lines up with the overall will of the American voters. What could be better than isolating Obama and Obamacare from the will of the people and Congress heading into 2012?
This is gold. Every vote Boehner gets in the Senate is pure PR gold. It set’s the stage for 2012 and has the potential to destroy the false sense of inevitability the Dems have been trying to create around Obamacare. Harry Reid owns the Senate schedule. He was going to simply shut down debate and ride out these next two years as best he could. Without getting on the Senate schedule you could not even get PR points.
So what did Boehner have to beat the Dems with and get this much out of them? My guess is it was that moronic false choice between Planned Parenthood and paying our troops. As I said in numerous previous posts, only a political moron/novice would set up this false choice (see here for examples). Presidents should never forget, they will be fired before they can harm our brave men and women on the front lines of 3 wars and numerous police actions. There is no doubt here at all, unless you are a clueless and insecure liberal. The Commander-In-Chief had come out and said he would veto troop pay. He was checkmated right then and there.
Kay Baily Hutchinson was on last night and dropped a little noticed bomb shell. She had 80 cosponsors on a Senate bill – yes, I said 80 – to fund the DoD for the next 6 months. When combined with the House offer to do the same, Obama was facing a real mess. No stop gap CR, just a bill to pay the troops. The Dems in the Senate were jumping ship. The worst part? The Obama White House was using its CNN puppets to spread the word it was those very Senate Dems that asked to put troop pay in the shutdown mix. I sort of doubt it, given what Senator Hutchinson claimed. This is a clear sign that a bumbling political operation was getting whacked.
The Congress had decided which path they would take in the ridiculous false choice between Planned Parenthood and our troops. They stood with the troops and against the President. That is the only thing that could explain what we saw yesterday.
I am sure Reid told the President he was boxed in, and but good. The government would shutdown as the Congress passed legislation to remove the troops’ pay from the infighting. So what was left for the President? Make concessions and try to regroup. That is why we got that lame PR speech in the WH about people visiting the Washington Monument last night. All the administration could do was cobble together some PR imagery and pretend it was all their idea.
My guess is the left is going apoplectic about now. They lost the stimulus crap. Obamacare and Planned Parenthood will be up for votes in the Senate. And my guess is NPR and the EPA are still on the chopping block for 2012 – now only a short 6 months from today.
What did the Dems get in all this? Nothing.
Boehner, leading only one third of the government involved in legislation and funding, was able to walk all over the Senate and White House. I think there were more allies in the Senate than people realize. Senators Manchin and Webb come to mind.
At a minimum, the GOP has opportunities to establish a distinct and fiscally sound path for America’s future with respect to the Democrat insanity we have seen for the last 2+ years. And that was the real gold mined from the week of heated negotiations. Amazing.
Update: Ezra Klein at WaPo echoes my sentiments – not surprisingly.
Obama bragged about “making the largest annual spending cut in our history.” Harry Reid joined him, repeatedly calling the cuts “historic.” It fell to Boehner to give a clipped, businesslike statement on the deal. If you were just tuning in, you might’ve thought Boehner had been arguing for moderation, while both Obama and Reid sought to cut deeper. You would never have known that Democrats had spent months resisting these “historic” cuts, warning that they’d cost jobs and slow the recovery.
Boehner, of course, could afford to speak plainly. He’d not just won the negotiation but had proven himself in his first major test as speaker of the House. He managed to get more from the Democrats than anyone had expected, …
There is a reason Boehner quietly and happily walked away while Obama and Reid were busy getting lipstick out for their pigs.
Update: Ed Morrissey asks who won the fight:
This looks less like a victory for either side and more of a five-month truce.
As a warm up to the big fights coming, it was a smashing mission rehearsal. Now to the real battle.
Michelle Bachmann is being ridiculous. She just said on Fox News that she didn’t vote in favor the of deal last night, and that she would not vote for the legislation. She claims that this deal does not reflect all of the promises that the tea party politicians made. Does she not get that this will have to be done in steps? There is no way that any party could accomplish everything in one deal. Thats not how the government works.
Why can’t people take this as a huge victory in the right direction? And then move on to the next and make more progress on each vote thereafter.
That’s what worries me. People not familiar with the political arena tend to think in all-or-nothing terms.
Politics is the art of the feasible. And for having control of one half of one branch of Government, the Republicans did well.
They need to work on message delivery, though. Rand Paul’s proposed Medicare changes – from being an insurance program into a voucher system to help people buy their own insurance – is brilliant. But you don’t call it ‘reform’, you call it ‘protection’ with ‘insurance choice’. Marketing matters.
The media was, as usual, on the side of Obabbler and the Dems, but reality was on the side of JB. Even some of the Dems apparently are starting to understand the country in deep Obama here fiscally.
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I hesitate to throw cold water on the celebration, but cutting 38 Billion out of a 1600 Billion dollar one year deficit is a mere pittance, a drop in the proverbial bucket.
1600 Billion – 38 Billion = 1562 Billion or 1.52 Triilion dollar one year deficit!
This is no time to rejoice! If my math above is correct this is time to hoard your valuables, look for investments that are tangible and tradeable and realize that as long as this game goes on the financil structure of these United States and thus the world is in grave danger of a major collapse and the valu of the dollar may well be less than the yen or peso.
If you lost your job and had to cut a 1600 three month grocery bill to be able to afford home, heat, schooling and transportation do you honestly think the best you could do would be 38 dollars or even 380?
I bet 800 would be more realistic.
The Repuiblicans are playing the game on the Dems playing field with the Referees being Dem cheerleaders and until they can wake up and take the offense we will continue to be sold into slavery.
This is what Bachman, Paul, Ryan and very few others know.
[…] AJ Strata was already on my wavelength on this. […]
Paul Ryan answers Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s “death trap claim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqV2E75oDNw
They just don’t come any better than Ryan.
Right Dhunter,
Only you and Bachman can add and subtract?
LOL! Notice how few GOP voted against the CR?
Bachman is toast.
I think it is good that we have those like Bachman holding feet to the fire. HOWEVER, she needs to be celebrating and giving credit right now to what WAS accomplished with a caveat that we KNOW there is much more to be done.
I am grateful for the Tea Party for igniting this debate, especially Rick Santelli who called for the first Tea Party on CNBC. Keep up the good work guys but know when to be positive! Americans like positive attitudes. The REAL fight is just beginning.
And the public needs to know that BOEHNER, not obama was the victor. INDEPENDENTS DO NOT BE FOOLED! Everyone, please spread the word because the local Gannett newspapers have OBAMA’S PICTURE on the front page, giving HIM credit!
This MUST be debunked for the spin that it is.
I understand her position as well as Allen West’s. Their message is commonly shared by other Republican GOPs. All of their messages are correct. What Bachman and West do not understand is that this has to be done in stepping stones and that this is the tipping point in John Boehner’s favor.
With John Boehner’s brilliant negotiations and Prosser’s recent (undeclared) win, I feel that the tide is turning already. Obama and Reid both know it. The public unions know it.
They’re losing to American Exceptionalism.
We are still watching the House GOP on how they will handle the debt ceiling and the 2012 budget fight.
BTW, did you see how red Claire McCaskill’s face turned as she tried to defend the lack of a FY2011 budget bill on time? She couldn’t defend it.
Yes, the tide is turning.
The Portugal bailout signals the beginning of the end of big government in the EU which has grown in leaps and bounds and swelled as every bother,mother and cousin and in law and outlaw jumped on the band wagon to wallow at the public trough.
It isn’t politics but pure numbers reality that pushed this since they ‘ran out of other peoples money’.
Yes this is just a start and more should come in the future or we will be in the same rock and a hard spot Portugal found itself in.
It is now we have to kill agency budgets and not just reduce them.
Kill off the EPA as an agency and move a small group to say Commerce to enforce existing law and cap the number of personnel that new group may employ and don’t allow them to outsource their work to others in Commerce or elsewhere to expand their real reach.
Kill the Dept of Education and put that back into the control of the states where it belongs.
I don’t care how much money lobbyist types want to throw into campaign coffers of the beltway types for the voters now it is stand on principles or be shoved to the side simply fiscal reality demands that and nothing less.
A J. You make a great point. The speaker did a good job as far as having a starting point. His cuts could be monstrous within a short period of time. However, If we start at 1.5 trillion in the hole he had plenty of room for improvement. Personally I’d prefer cutting and de funding entire programs. If the USA is going to be saved as an economic power, Government needs to meet the knife repeatedly and with vigor. We have room to grow immediately and hopefully our dreams of a de funded monster brings jobs for people by the thousands!!
MikeMose,
I prefer shutting down numerous agencies (DoE, DofE, EPA, USPS) etc. But the current split government does not allow for those options – yet.
A 1.6 Trillion dollar deficit cut to 1.52 Triilion dollar deficit can only be termed a win in DC speak.
I just came from Mexico where the price for trinkets started at 20.00 per and ended at 3/10 and when they went home in my pocket.
The Dems have played us for fools by running up a 1600 Dollar Deficit in the first place and selling the Republicans and the American Sheeple on a 1562 Deficit as some kind of meaningful cut.
It is unsustainable insanity! I only hope you are correct AJ that this is a starting point only, with better results to come.
I realize we don’t have the Senate or Presidency but think these Republicans should take a trip to Mexico on their own dime and see how the game is played for real instead of pretending to bargain with the future of the country and freedom as we know it.
Slavery to Government and her favored (Unions and slackers) constituents is the price for failure.
So far I see a lot of failure, good though, I guess, that some can find the pony in this pile of manure!
Dhunter – did you even READ the post? I never said the dollar number was a win.
Doh! Read, then try and comment cogently.
here remains a slow growth expansion in the private sector so a drastic cut of many government agencies will add to the unemployment rate. The government first needs to de-regulate the private sector at the same time they cut or reduce agency funds.
AJ is right…the demographics of all 3 houses does not allow for these things to happen until 2012 elections forcing Obama out of the White House and Reid back into a minority leader or just a regular senator.
This is a great message opportunity for the GOP if they take advantage of it.
BTW, I don’t think Bachman is toast.
The USPS exists due to a Constitutional requirement it be there. But it is only their contract demands by the unions that keep them at a size that no longer reflects the real world conditions and how communications have shifted.
I can look at my mailbox every day and reflect on how little real mail I get each year. Perhaps a dozen or so letters from relatives or friends or maybe another 3 dozen letters that are real business needs to communicate with me.
Personally the rest of my mail fits neatly into the junk mail territory and over the course of a year could fill nearly half of a dump truck in volume and have to be buried in the local county landfill and mostly that is either unopened or run through a shredder just in case it has personally identifiable information in it.
I do not need 30 or 40 catalogs by mail a month since more current and up to date versions are available online.
If the USPS were right sized to match it’s original intent and purpose and junk mail was to have their 4th class subsidy removed that traffic would mostly move to the web except for the small market of non net connected customers.
All we have to do is turn the tables on the left and say with a lot of truth that this would be a green approach due to all the reductions in fuel usage to haul all this stuff around just to end up in a dump somewhere that could really use that volume for real refuse from households and business.
Yes I read your post AJ and I agree that voting on OBlahBLahcare and Planned Parenthood would be good steps!
That said, do you really believe it will come to a vote. The people who passed these bills in the dark of night, on holiday weekends, negotiated amongst only themselves, behind closed doors and then only managed to pass the junk through bribes, intimidation, and loss of many of its supporters to resignation or defeat cannot be trusted to bring this garbage to a vote.
I hope your rosy optimism proves to be true I really do, but I am a student of human behavior and I don’t see the Democrat skunks or their zebra water carriers in the press abandoning their strips.
The modis operente of the Democrat Party and their President is to Lie, Lie, Lie and when cornered Lie some more in full knowledge that they will not be held to account by their willing accomplises, the Presstitutes.
My above post should have read 1600 BILLION Dollar deficit cut to 1562 BILLION dollar deficit.
Respectfully AJ I do hope your right and I’m wrong, I’m not optimistic knowing the types of people we are dealing with here.
They are close to their socialist one world order and the truth will not get in the way of their achieving it.
Fair enough Dhunter, But may I point out you are too pessimistic. Why not wait and see instead of surrendering immediately.
“Bachman is toast.”
I’m not sure. The Republicans have to have a viable candidate and while I’m conservative, right now I’m not sure who is viable.
I’m leaning toward Trump right now because of his business experience mainly. Can’t think of any other good Republican candidate at the present time, but at least Bachman is on my possibility slate.
Ryan might be, but he has one of the same problems Barky does, lack of experience. Give him a couple more years. The presidency shouldn’t be an On the Job training position. Bachman does have some business experience.
concerning the post. I agree it is a major win for Boehner. He completely snookered Barky. It is the largest one year budget cut ever. They had to start somewhere, get the Dims used to losing. Now cut the 6 Trillion for the next budget and we’ll be on track. The prez went from ‘not going to cut anything’ to the largest one year cut in history, that’s a victory in any language.