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by Jed Lewison Daily Kos
Tue Nov 16, 2010 at 04:16:12 PM PST
Check out this statement from Mitch McConnell's office about the postponement of the bipartisan meeting that had been scheduled for Thursday to discuss tax cuts:
Don Stewart, a spokesman for the Mr. McConnell, the Kentucky lawmaker, said in an email that there had never really been a firm date. “We’ll have a meeting so that we can discuss issues that Republicans have long said can be accomplished together,” his message said. “These include reducing spending, growing jobs through increased trade and increasing domestic energy. The Leader is encouraged that the President wants to discuss these areas of agreement.”
You see what's happening here? Republicans -- probably correctly -- believe Democrats have already caved on tax cuts, so they're moving the goal posts. Now they are defining bipartisanship as agreeing with them on GOP agenda items like decreasing spending and increased energy production (translation: more deepwater drilling).
Maybe the White House thought that folding their hand before sitting down at the table would make them look reasonable and bipartisan, and maybe they were right, but to the people they need to negotiate with, it just looked weak. And this is the predictable result: Republicans are taking their win, and moving the goalposts to try to accomplish the next item on their agenda.
The most infuriating thing here is that this is happening while Democrats still control Congress. You get elected to a two-year term, not a 22-month term. There'd be no shame in extending middle-class tax cuts during the lame duck session of Congress. If Republicans want to extend tax cuts on income over $250,000, let them do it next year.
The only piece of good news here is that there's still time for Democrats to fight for the people they were elected to represent. There's still time to show what the Democratic Party is all about. I'll be honest: I'm pessimistic as hell that they'll actually do it. But they still can. And maybe, just maybe, this spit in the face from GOP congressional leadership will finally make it clear to the White House and Democrats that the only real way to get bipartisan compromise is to prove that you're willing to take action on your own.
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