My way or the highway

My way or the highway

by digby

Shorter Mitch McConnell: Why won’t Dems agree to a compromise under which we make no concessions whatsoever?

Except, they see no need for compromise at all. I’ll just post this comment from a random reader again, for emphasis:

You don’t have to compromise if both parties want the same thing. The Dems represented that they wanted, or at least were willing to accept budget cuts. Great, our team wanted budget cuts too.

The Republicans are able to do this because the Democrats show their hand over and over again and in any case, they don’t really want anything the Democrats have to offer. They’re now turning down tax cuts unless there are matching budget cuts to “pay” for them. They are happy to walk away. So unless the Dems do exactly what they want, they won’t deal.

I assume they don’t really want their constituents taxes to go up even though King Grover has given his dispensation. And I’m guessing they would rather extend unemployment benefits at Christmas time. But they have not paid any political price for their obstructionism so far — after all the beltway makes sure that both parties are blamed equally for these things, so no harm no foul — and they know that the Democrats are very likely to do whatever it takes to get some stimulus and Unemployment Insurance extension. They have zero motivation (beyond being decent human beings, which they aren’t) to compromise.

I suppose we can hope that they have an attack of conscience, but I think it’s a better bet that this dynamic will not change until they are forced to pay a price at the ballot box.

.