Friday, September 21, 2012

FAILED BUDGET NEGOTIATIONS, SUMMER 2011

There is a lot of debate about who caused the collapse of budget negotiations:  Obama or Boehner. 

From the liberal New York Times (Matt Bai, author):   If you shake hands with a guy on the price of a car, and you agree to talk again after the car has been inspected and the loan has been approved, you don’t really expect to show up and find out that car now costs $5,000 more. This is essentially what happened to Boehner. What both Tuesday’s panicky calls from the White House and the subsequent counteroffer make clear is that Obama knew he was changing the terms and felt he had no choice.

ABC News interviewing Bob Woodward about his new book, The Price of PoliticsBut at one critical juncture, with an agreement tantalizingly close, Obama pressed Boehner for additional taxes as part of a final deal -- a miscalculation, in retrospect, given how far the House speaker felt he'd already gone.

James Pethokoukis, Reuters:  Blame Obama.

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