Mr. Obama, you could have at least used the Federal Pay Raise issue to get something you wanted

[CreekDog]

It is a negotiation after all.

:shrug:

[NightWatcher]

1. Still playing chess huh? the unemployed get screwed, the workers get screwed

the rich will get a tax break

and Obama will reap the blame


He could have traded something for the rich in exchange for something for the poor and the working, but nope, folds to the Congress-elect

[CreekDog]

3. Who taught him how to negotiate?

:eyes:

[laughingliberal]

8. IMF & World Bank? nt

[earth mom]

39. + 100000000000! nt

[joeybee12]

2. Aw come on, it's "the best we could do"

Negotiation is not something this administration does, nor does it compromise...it capitulates.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. That would get his powder potentially wet.

And keeping your powder dry is far more impotent than playing political poker with the assholes currently controlling the GOP.

I still long for the days of John Anderson, a liberal GOPer who supported SALT, a rising minimum wage, a sane energy policy that would have eliminated oil imports, a working health care system for all, and tax fairness, with the super rich paying the majority of the load.

Pity, he was so much more liberal than our DINOs, that he'd probably join Bernie Sanders instead of switching from R to D.

[jaxx]

5. What was settled?

Don't pose riddles, give a link to what has happened.

[harun]

7. Federal Wage Freeze

http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/29/news/economy/federal_pay_freeze/index.htm?hpt=T1

[laughingliberal]

10. Oh, Yay! And here he signals the poor, elderly, and sick are next!

"This freeze is not to punish federal workers or to disrespect the work that they do," the White House said in a statement. "It is the first of many actions we will take in the upcoming budget to put our nation on sound fiscal footing -- which will ask for some sacrifice from us all."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/29/news/economy/federal_pay_freeze/index.htm?hpt=T

We know who he means by 'us.'

[jaxx]

13. I don't get it.

[Edweird]

16. I believe what you are experiencing is called 'cognitve dissonance'.

[jaxx]

17. No, it's reality.

I haven't had a raise in 4 years. I don't have a problem with federal employees doing without one for awhile.

[Edweird]

19. So instead of working to get what the union workers have, you want them to suffer like you?

Pathetic, but not surprising.

[jaxx]

20. Yeah, reality bites.

I'm not suffering by the way.

[Edweird]

22. I hear you. You 'got yours'. That certainly explains a lot.

Nonetheless, anti-labor/anti-union rhetoric is despicable and coming from a "Dem" president is absolutely inexcusable.

[jaxx]

26. LOL they got 4 more years on me.

I do love it when the anti-Obama rhetoric gets going around here. It's funny as hell and so off base.

[Edweird]

28. Good luck with that. I suspect in Nov. 2012 your 'reality bites' comment

be downright prophetic. I also find your arrogance, given what happened less than a month ago, unwarranted and peculiar (and possibly self sabotaging).

[jaxx]

29. Really.

Call it what you like, and so will I. But don't get personal.

[laughingliberal]

33. Oh, yes! I love the humor in seeing a Democratic president fulfill the oligarch's wet dream.

It's a fucking laugh a minute.

[superduperfarleft]

24. I haven't had a raise in 5 years. Maybe you should give your last one back.

Just to be fair and everything.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

38. I think many of us federal employees agree with the president in concept.

The problem comes when trying to get him to understand that it's never going to be enough. No matter how much he capitulates to the right, they will never accept anything he does as good.

Freezing salaries is the politically expedient approach. It amounts to throwing a bone at the Republicans. Believe me, they'll keep raising the bar. It won't be just freezing salaries; it'll be cutting the workforce. Then, it won't just be reducing the workforce, it'll become abolishing entire agencies. And so on...

[CreekDog]

18. as astute as you claim to be and you aren't familiar with this issue?

nor the ongoing criticism about his negotiating style?

come on.

[jaxx]

21. P&Ms about his negotiating style are a dime a dozen.

Since it just happened today, no I wasn't really up on it yet. But the POTUS just spoke and said there will be more cuts coming. I'll review what he said since I just caught the end of it.

[laughingliberal]

34. "But the POTUS just spoke and said there will be more cuts coming"

Yes, we're getting a nice preview of the cuts that are planned from his appointees, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. I can hardly wait!

[CreekDog]

36. we've met the enemy

and they say it's us. :hide:

[dennis4868]

6. And tell me how you know that Obama got....

nothing in return? Do you work behind the scenes at the WH and in Congress?

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CreekDog]

12. maybe we get to keep getting groped

:shrug:

[displacedvermoter]

31. I tried to inform you how "historic" things are passed along

here on DU, but the moderators prefer I keep such things a secret for just really well informed folks.

[jayfish]

11. B... bu... but... Teh class warfarez!

Oh, I forgot. That only works with the persecuted rich. This country sucks ass and I'm done with Obama. ...and, probably, politics in general

[MiniMe]

14. It doesn't matter. What he learned is that the repukes lie about what they will give

[Edweird]

15. He got what he wanted: lower wages for government employees.

[laughingliberal]

23. +1 nt

[leftstreet]

25. +1

[Starry Messenger]

27. Exactly. n/t

[Autumn]

30. Who says he didn't get what he wanted?

I don't think he negotiates.

[laughingliberal]

35. +1000 nt

[budkin]

32. DEFICIT!!!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

37. That's how I see it. I'm a federal employee who earns a fairly good salary.

The freeze won't hurt me. But guess what? The lapse of tax cuts for the middle class will.

Now, for all of those federal employees on the lower end of the pay scale who live in Washington, D.C.--one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.--they take a double whammy: a tax increase.

If Obama was going to sell us out, why not make it a positive-sum gain?

This is how a negotiation works:

I'll do X, if you do Y where the end result benefits us both.

Instead he froze federal salaries with no bargaining chip.

I simply don't get it.