Is This Any Way to Negotiate?

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama was frequently portrayed as some sort of Jedi knight/chess master who could see three moves ahead and outplay all his opponents. Either those descriptions were laughably off-base, or Obama had to hand in his light saber upon entering the White House.

In this latest fight over the budget, remember that Speaker Boehner originally demanded $32 billion in cuts. Democrats said this would devastate the economy. The eventual “compromise” to stave off government shutdown implemented $39 billion in cuts. Democrats praised the “biggest annual spending cut in history.” A very odd way for Democrats—who control the Senate and the White House—to meet Republicans in the middle.

The very next day after the shutdown was averted, Speaker Boehner saddled up for the next fight, over raising the debt ceiling (a routine but economically essential act that prevents the United States from going into default and potentially triggering a second worldwide recession). Boehner made it clear that, once again, he’d be taking the government hostage until he got what he wanted:

On Saturday night House Speaker John Boehner declared, "The president says, 'I want you to send me a clean bill.' Guess what, Mr. President. Not a chance you're going to get a clean bill."

Boehner argued that "there's no plan to deal with the debt we're facing," and that Republicans would not vote to increase the limit unless Democrats conceded something "really, really big."

That was Saturday night. Three days later, the Wall Street Journal reports that Obama is now open to a “deal” with Republicans, in which he’s support additional cuts in exchange for this routine, economically essential vote on raising the debt ceiling.

This is a very odd way to negotiate. It is literally guaranteed to give the Republicans—who again control only one house of Congress—at least part of what they want. More damaging, it continues Obama’s ceding of the policy argument to the GOP: that government’s top priority right now should not be reducing unemployment, investing in infrastructure and technology, strengthening education, or moving to a new clean energy economy, but only to cut cut cut and focus on the debt (without, of course, any tax hikes). This is not only insane politically (polls show that the GOP’s plans are insanely unpopular [pdf]), but it is a betrayal of the policies Obama ran on. He is smarter than this. Or is that just the remnants of the Jedi-knight-narrative again?