The GOP should learn 2 big lessons from the recent round of failed debt talks,
writes Kim Strassel in the
Wall Street Journal. First, Mr. Obama is not, and will never be a serious negotiating partner.
House Speaker John Boehner came out of the election assuming his counterpart—faced with a dramatic economic moment—would act the statesman. With working-class taxpayers on the line, the military on the chopping block and the economy in the balance, Mr. Boehner found it impossible to believe the president would fail to see the risks at hand.
Then again, this was the same president who in 2011, during the debt-ceiling negotiations, proved willing to risk national default if it meant he could keep spending...
In that context, it seems no surprise that Mr. Boehner's worthy offer, in November, to offer Mr. Obama the tax revenue he sought—by closing deductions on higher earners—was treated with derision. Mr. Obama's only response was to pocket that offer and demand more.
The GOP's hope that this White House would walk the plank with it on entitlement reform was equally fanciful. Mr. Obama won't willingly agree to any serious cuts, to any meaningful entitlement reform, ever. He will risk everything—the "middle class" he claims to want to protect, his economic legacy—to continue growing government.
The second lesson is that a house divided is a losing house.
Mr. Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted to rally their members around a common message that tax rates should not go up for anyone. But their party's freelancers, ever eager for a quick headline, ran for the exits. This allowed Mr. Obama to make the past seven weeks all about the GOP's tax divisions.
Democrats—the party whose members have the real divisions and liabilities on taxes—watched with glee as every Republican Tom, Dick and Harry staked out a different position on the cliff. Democrats skated away from the far more pressing problem of overspending, while Mr. Obama felt no pressure to corral his own party on that issue.
Contrast this to recent history, when the GOP stood together against Mr. Obama's proposals. Unified Republican opposition to the White House's stimulus legislation and ObamaCare helped crystallize in the public's mind the partisan nature of those ventures, leaving the president to fully own his mistakes.
Going forward.
The GOP would do well to internalize these recent experiences, because no matter what happens next, the political dynamic won't much change. If we go over the cliff, Mr. Obama will use the drama again to pressure Republicans to enter into negotiations for a big deal. Even if Congress does a small "fix" in the coming days—one that raises taxes on some Americans—the president will look to the coming debt-ceiling fight to push for more big talks.
At that point, Republicans will face a choice. They can continue the folly of believing this president will compromise. Or they can realize that he will never be reasonable on taxes—and so they can't give anything away. They can realize that he won't hold hands with them on entitlement reform—and so they'll have to state their own big demands and force him to explain his lack of leadership. They can realize that backroom talks are a sucker's game.
For all the ugliness of this lame-duck session, it did have one merit: It has exposed how President Obama intends to govern in a second term. He's intent on narrow political victories and on damaging his opponents. Republicans can be grateful at least for that insight, and proceed accordingly.
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