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2/23/2010
Burri: Open-minded as long as you do what we say
In just a few days, congressional Democrats and Republicans – and President Obama, too – will gather for a first-of-its-kind televised health care summit.
Everyone involved is being urged to keep an open mind. A willingness to listen, and consider the other side's ideas. To leave partisanship behind. Work for the greater good.
"The president is coming into the meeting with an open mind," said (White House spokesman Dan) Pfeiffer. "If the Republicans do, too, our hope is that we can find some areas of agreement. If the Republicans bring good ideas to the table we will find ways — look for ways to incorporate those into our proposals."
See? Non-partisan. Open-minded. Ready to talk. Stuffed to the seams with chutzpah.
Chutzpah!
Because the very same day those comments were made, President Obama announced a “new” trillion-dollar health care “plan,” designed without Republican input. Oh, and:
The White House immediately demanded an up-or-down vote in Congress on the plan, or something close to it.
Demanded an up-or-down vote. On his new bill. With a completely open mind.
And what, exactly, is in the bill?
By and large, it follows the bill passed by Senate Democrats on Christmas Eve, with changes intended to make it acceptable to their House counterparts.
The very same bill that Republicans have already rejected. The bill that contains more poison pills, conservatively speaking, than medicine.
This, only days before a “non-partisan” health care “summit” where everyone should “keep an open mind.”
But that’s not all. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Friday:
The majority leader said that while Democrats have a number of options, they would likely use the budget reconciliation process to pass a series of fixes to the first healthcare bill passed by the Senate in November...
"We'll do a relatively small bill to take care of what we've already done," Reid said, affirming that Democrats would use the reconciliation process. "We're going to have that done in the next 60 days."
We'll be open minded, Reid says, as long as you do what we say!
Let’s play make-believe. Imagine yourself, heading into a negotiation. Now imagine yourself, days before that negotiation, announcing publicly that you want X, Y, and Z, even though you know they're deal-killers.
And then imagine yourself announcing: if they don’t give me X, Y, and Z, I’ll ram it down their throats anyway.
The union rep telling the reporter that GM better damn well double his people’s salaries, recession or no. The GM rep saying the union better damn well accept minimum wage, or they’ll all be fired.
What, pray tell, would you expect from that negotiation? Would there even be a negotiation?
Why, then, do the Democrats expect one? And what do they expect to come of it?
Now: setting the bar high is a common technique. You always ask for more than you want. Lots more. Then you negotiate down. We could be generous, and assume that this is the Democrat strategy.
Except: if you set the bar too high, if your goals are too stratospheric…negotiations require carrots, as well as sticks. Your opponents have to believe there's something they can gain, or else negotiations aren't worth their time.
So. What do Republicans want? To win the majorities back. Do they need this "summit" to get that?
It doesn’t look that way. In fact, it’s exactly these same proposals that got D.C. Democrats into the straits they’re in. They played a losing hand, then called a “summit,” and then played exactly the same hand.
Their minds are, in fact, open. So very open, their brains have fallen out.
Lance Burri blogs regularly via his site, The TrogloPundit.
COMMENTS
Right on, Lance! The President is trashing our Constitution in a number of ways. The Executive is not to make law. The Legislative is specifically tasked with that mandate. President Obama acts as though The Constitution of the United States doesn't contain a separation and ennumeration of powers, and he is the Supreme Leader. He behaves in ways that are unseemly and un-Constitutional.
Janice Taylor (Tue Feb 23 16:39:57 2010)
By the title I thought you were talking about republicans. Partisanship above the good of us all, both parties, but the republicans seem to have devoloped it to an art form.
Dean Weichmann (Wed Feb 24 15:35:18 2010)
I have to agree with Dean Weichmann's comment. At first, I thought this article was talking about the Republican Establishment here in Wisconsin; more precisely the dispatched minions of Paul Ryan...Reid Ribble knows what I'm talking about. ;)
Michael S. Murphy (Thu Feb 25 21:07:21 2010)
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