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Presidential Compromising

Comunitee

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We can have a conversation, Mr. Speaker, as soon as you grow a pair and STOP lying.
The past has shown the President more than willing to throw his Base under the bus, with Keystone--repeal of medical equipment tax--chained CPI--sequester--accepting House Repub budget numbers.

The very fact that we even HAVE Obamacare is a massive concession. It isn't just Romneycare, it's Heritagecare: The Heritage Foundation's idea. Having that is a massive concession, one that Bill Clinton wasn't willing to make 20 years ago.

Plenty of Presidents have made compromises. Franklin Roosevelt compromised with both the left (Henry Wallace as VP for 3rd term, a Fair Employment Practices Commission) and the right (dumping Wallace for the 4th term, not going further for civil rights than the FEPC).

Dwight D. Eisenhower compromised on a Civil Rights Act in 1957, although the outside-the-South Democrats compromised enough that it was virtually toothless. Conservative Democrat (later switching to the Republicans) Strom Thurmond filibustered it for over 24 hours anyway, though he had no more success with it than Ted Cruz did with his "faux-libuster."

John F. Kennedy compromised by essentially putting off a civil rights bill for 2 1/2 years, before the firehoses and police dogs showed him that enough was enough.

Richard Nixon compromised by signing into law the EPA and OSHA -- even though they were bills written by Ed Muskie and George McGovern, two very liberal Democratic Senators who were expected to run against him in 1972. Nixon realized that the bills made sense, but he also realized that, if he signed them into law, moderates would give him the credit, rather than the Democratic Senators. (And it worked: Muskie's campaign imploded in New Hampshire, and McGovern barely mentioned his Senate achievements after he was nominated. That it wouldn't have mattered if he did is a story for another time.)

Gerald Ford, a conservative by nature, compromised with the moderates in his party by taking Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President. Then he compromised with the conservatives by dumping Rocky from the ticket for 1976, and taking on Bob Dole instead.

Jimmy Carter wasn't willing to compromise much, with either the left or the right, and his Presidency is widely seen as a failure.

Ronald Reagan compromised with Congressional Democrats after his rich man's tax cut drove unemployment from 7 to 11 percent in less than 2 years, and raised taxes, thus bringing both unemployment and the budget deficit back down.

George Bush the father compromised with Congressional Democrats and raised taxes, and deserves a little credit for the deficit coming back down, although Clinton did the heaviest lifting on that.

Speaking of Clinton, he was willing to make even more concessions than Obama: NAFTA (though I admit I supported that at the time), welfare "reform," the Defense of Marriage Act, the Telecommunications Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley (which repealed Glass-Steagall).

George Bush the son wouldn't compromise on anything, and his was the worst Presidency since the dawn of the Civil War.

Obama has compromised enough. The current Republicans, on the other hand, have a different definition of compromise: "I get 98 percent of what I want, and you get... called only a socialist, not a communist."

By holding firm on this shutdown, Obama, finally, is channeling his inner Samuel L. Jackson, and saying, "Enough is enough! I have had it with these (expletive deleted) snakes in this (expletive deleted) Tea Party!"

(Actually, when the transcripts of the Nixon Tapes were first released, there were a lot of "(expletive deleted)"s. But when they began to be declassified, it turned out there were a lot more references to God and Jesus than to George Carlin's "Seven Words.")

Obama has given the Republicans what they said they wanted on the federal budget, and the deficit has already been cut in half. He has compromised enough. It's time for the Republicans to do so.
 
The very fact that we even HAVE Obamacare is a massive concession. It isn't just Romneycare, it's Heritagecare: The Heritage Foundation's idea. Having that is a massive concession, one that Bill Clinton wasn't willing to make 20 years ago.

We're way beyond "conversation" Mr. Speaker or "discussion" Sen. Coburn. I like Coburn's Back-in-Black Plan and see it as the Father of the "Grand Bargain".
The time for talk was the first seven months of this year when Repubs were plotting THIS meltdown, denying a Bi-cameral conference 18 times.
 
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