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Thursday, December 06, 2007
The Sound of One Party Negotiating
All Quiet on the Budget Front
The quiet that has descended over Washington amid the cold war on the budget has almost nothing to with the blanket of snow that fell on the town steadily all day yesterday. Instead, we heard essentially the same thing we've been hearing for the last several weeks.
We heard that the soft-spoken White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Mr. Invisible, OMB Director Jim Nussle ventured through the snow yesterday to the Capitol for meetings with congressional leaders on both sides of Capitol Hill. "None of the principals would comment, but sources said the meetings with Democratic leaders yielded no negotiations on overall spending levels," Congress Daily reported.
No negotiations? Even though only one of the twelve budget bills has been signed and we are into the third month of the budget year? Despite widepsread concern about the budget impasse and government shutdowns?
Who needs bipartisan negotiations when you have House Appropriations Chair David R. Obey (D-WI) negotiating -- against himself? "There's a Plan A. There's a Plan B. There's a Plan C," Obey explained yesterday. "But there's no point in talking about it because you just undercut your first preference."
You've noticed that, have you? If you keep splitting the difference, pretty soon there will be no difference.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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