The rather painless vote on a no strings attached temporary increase in the debt limit back in January and the easy passage of a continuing resolution this week made it seem as if the age of manufactured budget crises might finally be over. But apparently Speaker John Boehner is not ready to give up on [...]

An important sign that the sequestration cuts are likely to take place at the beginning of next month is that members of Congress appear to be spending far more time on trying to assign the blame than on trying to find a way to get rid of them. The Republican leadership wants everyone to believe that the sequestration cuts were President Obama’s idea.

One of the most memorable parts of President Obama’s hour-long press conference on Monday came he was forced to face the issue of his own negotiating credibility problem.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has officially invited President Obama to give his State of the Union address before the Congress on February 12 and the President has accepted. From Boehner’s official invite: Dear Mr. President: Our nation continues to face immense challenges, and the American people expect us to work together in [...]

During this fiscal cliff fight, the Obama team has only \drawn two lines in the sand. The first was on raising the tax rate for people making over $250,000 a year.  The other was refusing to allow raising the debt ceiling to be used for political gain. On both of these demands Obama has already [...]

Probably the telling sign that we shouldn’t expect a deal regarding the fiscal cliff in the near future is that Speaker John Boehner is going back home to Ohio this weekend. While it is true that Boehner and President Obama can always talk on the phone, when you have a negotiation involving so many moving [...]

Probably the best sign that Senate Democrats are going to reform the Senate rules at the beginning of the next Congress and there is nothing the Republicans can do about it is this comically empty threat from Speaker John Boehner. From Boehner’s office: “Senate Democrats’ attempt to break Senate rules in order to change Senate [...]

We are still months away from the so called “fiscal cliff” or “taxmaggedon” when among other things the Bush tax cut extension expires.  But the Democratic leadership has already started negotiations against itself. With negotiations with the GOP not having really begun, Pelosi has already moved the Democratic ask to the right in a preemptive [...]

It is conventional wisdom never to negotiate for hostages, because such bargaining only makes hostage taking worthwhile. If there were no value available from hostage taking, people would have little reason to try taking hostages. If you do pay for a hostage, it signals to your adversaries that hostage taking is a great idea and [...]

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.