re: #49 Targetpractice

If the GOP is not going to accept preconditions, then I see no reason to have negotiations, publicly or privately. If Mr. Boehner cannot control enough votes in the House to ensure such a deal will reach the Senate, as he could not during the debt ceiling debacle, then I see no reason to waste time on a deal that will go nowhere.

If that logic is the one that is adopted, then there is indeed nothing to talk about. The Republican party cannot and will not agree to a tax hike publicly then beg for spending reductions. The sequester would be preferable.