The Obama administration officially released its budget for fiscal year 2013 yesterday. As much as I like writing about policy, I frankly lack any desire to write about the substance of this budget proposal. The simple fact is that the President’s budget is basically a long, vaguely political document that is effectively meaningless. After a [...]

In case you weren’t paying attention during the debate about the extension of the Bush tax cuts last year, members of Congress are again working on a deal to clearly show there is no such thing as a deficit hawk. From Politico: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is quietly working both sides of the Capitol to [...]

Quinnipiac released their Florida poll numbers on the President and the debt ceiling bill, and it does not bode well for his 2012 chances in the swing state. His approval among Independents went from 42% last Wednesday through Sunday to 33% from Monday through Tuesday, while disapproval shot up 52% to 61%. When asked to describe how they feel about the deal, more Independents said they were “angry” (23%) than either Republicans or Democrats.

In order to contextualize the bind that this puts Obama in, it’s worth recounting what I’ve been told about how the deal went down.

With the debt ceiling deal now law, the next stage of using artificial crisis to force austerity onto the American people begins. This next time instead of members of Congress saying they must vote for big cuts to avoid default, they will be able to point to the newly created triggers in this deal as [...]

Any proposal put forward by the Super Congress created by the debt ceiling deal can’t be amended and must receive an up-or-down vote in both chambers of the Congress. This means whatever package this small group of members comes up with can’t be filibustered. If there was every any doubt that the main reason the [...]

This recent debt ceiling deal proves the best way for the Republican Party to get what they want from the Democrats and President Obama is to take metaphorical hostages. At this point for the GOP to try negotiating for new laws through the traditional legislative process would be beyond stupid given how effective the tactic [...]

I remember an extremely jarring moment during one of President Obama’s press conferences about extending the Bush tax cuts, when Obama said he must give in to hostage-taking tactics. Via Huffington Post: “I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that [...]

Reports circulate that President Obama may agree to a massive all cuts debt ceiling package, creating a lot of anger and a sense of betrayal because Obama will fold on his demand that any debt ceiling package contain at least a small amount of new revenue. I can’t understand the amount of anger though because [...]

Obama is no deficit hawk or policy wonk, he is a big deal hawk. He seems to wants to get big bipartisan deals for the sake of getting big deals. He fights for a bipartisan deal even with getting a deal is totally unnecessary to achieving his stated policy goals.

The negotiation table is like the poker table, you don’t get a seat unless you have chips to pay with. By failing to prove she actually has the will and/or power to say no, Pelosi has shown the president she has no leverage, so doesn’t deserve a seat.