Posted on 04/09/2011 3:11:37 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
One week ago, John Boehner was dead meat. Facing a rebellion among his freshman members and with a government shutdown looming, Washington was preparing a professional obituary for the speaker of the House.
If he agreed to any compromise on the plan to fund the government for the remainder of the federal fiscal year, Boehner would lose the confidence of his caucus and be a lame duck. If he dug in and joined the fiscal hard-liners in shutting down the government, Boehner would lose his ability to negotiate with Democrats in future fights. His options were to either lose face or to lose his most important bargaining tool. Checkmate.
Yet today, Boehner’s clout in his caucus and as a negotiator have been enhanced.
He is the primary author of a compromise to keep the government operating for the rest of the year with the largest spending reduction in history – 63 percent of the original GOP request of $61 billion. Republicans also got a potpourri of sweeteners, like up-or-down votes on politically painful subjects like President Obama’s health care law and federal subsidies for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Not too shabby for a guy who held only one of three seats at the negotiating table.
How did he do it?
Managed Expectations
Boehner’s greatest asset in the process was the low expectations of the skeptics and Democrats.
The press has been waiting for the Tea Party revolt since before the November elections. Reporters have been flogging this story so long that tend to see its shadow over everything that happens in Republican politics. If all you have is a hammer…
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Kitcat,
The reason that conservatives are ticked, is because this supposed “cut” (which is actually a $300 billion increase in spending over the last year), is completely insignificant.
Even if the $39 Billion cut was actually less than the previous year (it’s not), it would be less than 1% of the budget.
C’mon — 1% is the best we can do?
There were no "spending cuts". They agreed to a record ~$3.6 trillion budget and a record ~$1.5 trillion budget deficit for 2011, all increases over the 2010 budget.
That's called an increase in the budget, and not a decrease.
They did agree to $38 billion less than what Obama originally proposed, but since when do we start calling that a spending cut?
All the media telling me what a victory it is for boner just convinces me more and more what a crappy deal this is.
Yay~! we went from $1.63 Trillion deficit to $1.6 Trillion...
Wah hoo...
Never!
It’s already worth it.
The compromise included the Dornan Amendment. My tax dollars will no longer pay to kill babies in the US capitol THIS YEAR.
Yes, it was a victory, like Guadalcanal was a victory. The tide of government spending has been stopped; now it will be rolled back, despite frantic opposition.
Wait until 2013!
FOX has gone along with the fake budget deal. What a joke.
Rush today said this is all about the Republicans, Democrats and media elite going after the tea party by making Boehner look like a hero and doing anything possible to diminish the tea party.
We got nothing.
John Boehner Must Go
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2702879/posts
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