Why is Obama negotiating for the Democrats in Congress?

[Eddie Haskell]

Maybe I don't understand the procedure, but isn't Congress responsible for the budget? Shouldn't Congress come to an agreement before the President signs off? It seems to me, that by having the President involved, the Democrats have relinquished the power of the veto. What gives?

[Snotcicles]

1. Gonna kick this one. nt

[Lasher]

2. Harry Reid should be there.

I suspect this is a concession to keep Eric Cantor out of the room.

[BlueStreak]

9. Or McConnell

Maybe the thinking is that with the filibuster reform, Reid can essentially neutralize McConnell. But that assumes you can get almost all the Dems to vote for it.

And there is the big fallacy in this whole process. Horse trading starting from the December facts is just wrong. The starting point for negotiations should have been the facts if all the laws are allowed to expire, which would give us a radically different (and better) outcome)As it is, every Ton, Dick, and Harry in both chambers wants to get their little concession put in there. If they had just let everything expire, they'd be in a position to say, "We're going to do these 5 things. If you try to block that, then nobody gets anything."

[Lasher]

11. If McConnell gets an invite, then what about Pelosi?

I hope these negotiations fail so that we'll have a better starting point and a better Congress. Even at that, I am apprehensive about having Obama as our chief negotiator of anything.

[BlueStreak]

12. For all we know, they may all be included.

Surely Obama is keeping them all informed, and I don't think Pelosi will keep to herself on this.

There can be an advantage to not having all the principals in the room. Boehner is certainly playing the good cop, bad cop game. "Listen, Mr. President, if it were just up to me, you know I would give you everything you are asking for. But I have to deal with Eric Cantor and those crazy Tea Party people, so you're going to have to give me some room to operate."

By having Reid and Pelosi out of the room, Obama can play the same game, but he doesn't appear to be up to the task.

[BlueCaliDem]

3. Thank you! Kick and rec'd for truth!

Congressional Democrats, again, are dropping the ball here. They're just sitting there doing nothing, letting the president do all the negotiating while they sit on their hands. It's figgin' frustrating!

But then again, they'll crow like pompous roosters once the president wins against the Republicans in both the fiscal slope negotiations and the debt ceiling debate. Again.

[unblock]

4. man, he gets dinged when he stays out of it, and he gets dinged when he dives in....

generally speaking, obama's negotiating the high-level features of the deal, such as setting the target amount for total spending cuts.

the details, which will be considerable, will be left to congress.

pretty standard procedure for this sort of thing. even for regular budgets, the president makes the initial proposal, alongside high-level negotiations.

[Eddie Haskell]

7. He gets dinged because he's got a history of caving to the other side.

We just had an election and we won ... The people didn't vote for cuts to social programs.

[unblock]

10. that's a different question. he can cave or not cave negotiating directly.

[forestpath]

5. It's called bad cop good cop. President Obama does their dirty work while they pretend

to protest. But they are all on the same side.

[srican69]

6. Obama speaks for the Democrats - if the house has a problem with what is negotiated - they can

vote it down.

fair enough?

[Eddie Haskell]

8. No it's not.

I didn't vote for my representatives to sit on their asses and let the President carry their water. Their supposed to be working for their constituents.