At Boehner’s Request, He and Obama Negotiate Alone

[quaker bill]

13. Boehner has taken a few heads

To assure "loyal soldiers" on the committees. He wants a deal and he wants to show he can pull one off. A one on one meeting can be much more frank about what can happen. Boehner needs to prove that he can pull together a majority that can work with the President and a Dem Senate, or he is useless.

T-party fun and games are over. Their efforts to make the President a one termer failed, and it cost them seats in both houses. The move is on to put the crazy uncle in the attic. All Boehner wants is to be able to say he got something. What he is likely to get is a cut in Medicare based on savings from granting medicare the right to negotiate prescription drug prices that will reduce the costs of delivering the same services.

Obama will get stimulus spending, maintenance of the middle class tax cut, expiration of the Bush* cuts for the wealthy, and the debt limit authority. Boehner in fact does not want to re-do this discussion every 6 months over the debt limit, as each time presents an opportunity for the T-party caucus to flex its control over the agenda and makes Boehner seem less effective. The deal is that the T-party can have a show vote, but loses on the veto override, where they are just a minor rabble.

My personal connections to the R party leadership indicate that the power brokers have taken away a message from the election. Fun and games are over, they need to show up as capable of governing, or the voters will bench them in a bigger way in 2014.