Tag: negotiations

The timeline of Obamacare delays arbitrarily imposed by the Obama administration.

9:16 am

The timeline of Obamacare delays arbitrarily imposed by the Obama administration.

Practically all of these are illegal, as the law does not give the president the power to make these changes. Also, note the wide gap from July 2, 2013 to November 27, 2013, when no delay orders were issued. It was during this time period that Obama and the Democrats in Congress were refusing to negotiate with Republicans about a variety of proposed Republican delays to the law. The result of this refusal was the shutdown of the government in October. Had the Democrats been willing to negotiate then, these delays would at least have been legal, and there would not have been a shutdown.

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What Democrats did wrong on the debt ceiling in 2010

10:44 pm

Analysis from a liberal at the Washington Post: What Democrats did wrong on the debt ceiling in 2010.

Raising the debt ceiling is really, really unpopular. The idea that Congress should vote itself more authority to run deficits is really, really unintuitive. Even now, after many months of coverage and the most aggressive communications campaign this White House has attempted, Americans are closely split on whether we need to raise the debt ceiling by Aug. 2. Whenever I try to run out the logic of Obama simply refusing to allow Republicans to take the debt ceiling hostage, I end up with us approximately where we are now, but Obama’s numbers are lower, the GOP’s numbers are higher, a number of congressional Democrats have broken ranks, and Washington elites are firmly arrayed against the White House.

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GOP senators focus on entitlement cuts

9:03 am

More debt ceiling negotiations: GOP senators focused on entitlement cuts in a meeting with Obama on Thursday. I found this quote quite intriguing and a refreshing change from previous such meetings:

Obama was careful not to dominate the meeting, according to Republican senators who attended. The president opened the session with brief remarks and spent most of the session listening to lawmakers’ concerns and responding to their arguments.

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