President Barack Obama often publicly chants his mantra of “[I] will not negotiate over the terms of debt limit legislation…[I am] willing to discuss a range of issues once the government is reopened and the Treasury able to borrow freely again.”
Given Obama’s credibility, though, on what basis can he be trusted to negotiate in good faith when there’s no pressure on him? More, recall that in the last debt ceiling fiasco just a couple of years ago, Obama personally (and cynically, say I) blew up one deal very near to completion with a deliberately late demand for $1 trillion in higher taxes.
Here are further examples of Obama’s willingness to negotiate:
In a 2011 address to Congress:
[Republicans’] vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America [and] children with autism or Down’s syndrome [should] fend for themselves.
At a Rockville, MD rally a few days ago:
single-greatest threat to our economy…the unwillingness of Republicans in Congress to stop refighting a settled election.
And
John Boehner…doesn’t want to anger the extremists in his party. That’s all. That’s what this whole thing is about.
And
Republican obsession [with] denying affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. That’s all this has become about. That seems to be the only thing that unites the Republican Party these days.
In a recent NPR interview covering, among other things, the then-imminent government shutdown:
Interviewer: What can you offer [to Republicans]?
Obama: [W]hen you say, ‘What can I offer?’—I shouldn’t have to offer anything.
Yeah, those are sound negotiating ploys, all right.
Finally, and not too unrelated, as Congressman Louie Gohmert (R, TX) says,
The [Obama] hissy fit is going to have to end[.]
