re: #26 windsword

I’m going to go ahead and agree with Frum on #1, too. My understanding is that the first Democratic offer was $4 billion (or no cuts!), and Boehner’s was $32 billion. The fact that the Republicans got more than their initial offer ($39 billion) is definitely a victory for them.

I don’t think fighting for the social issues in the budget was insanity, it was an intentional, fairly common technique to get more money. Republicans realized that Democrats desperately wanted to avoid a government shutdown and would never anger their base by accepting the cuts, so they tacked provisions on they knew the Democrats would pay big to get removed. And it worked.

It’s only a victory if you believe that Boehner won by getting his initial spending cut figure agreed upon, namely the $39 billion. If you’re a Tea Partier, who salivated at the idea of $100 billion in cuts and was outright livid when he was only willing to go as high at $60 billion, then $39 billion is an insult. Especially when it includes none of the other items that seemed too good to be true, like defunding Planned Parenthood and NPR.

Really, it’s a victory if you believe that compromise should be the foundation upon which all Congress’ work is based and that meeting in the middle is the goal. But if you’re the Tea Party, who believe compromise a dirty word and thinks that the wins in November meant you could rule with impunity, then it’s not a victory, it’s a surrender.