What is There to "Negotiate"?

Suppose President Obama announced:

Unless Republicans agree to my proposal for gun control, I will use my authority as commander in chief to scuttle one aircraft carrier a week in the bottom of the ocean.
I invite Republican leaders to come to the White House and negotiate a deal to preserve our military strength. I hope Republicans will work with me to prevent the loss of our carrier fleet.
If the Republicans refuse to negotiate, I will be compelled to begin by scuttling the U.S.S. George Washington in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, with 80 aircraft on board.

In that situation, we would all agree that Obama had gone nuts. Whatever his beefs with Republicans, it would be an inexcusable betrayal to try to get his way by destroying our national assets. That would be an abuse of power and the worst kind of blackmail.

And in that kind of situation, I would hope that we as journalists wouldn’t describe the resulting furor as a “political impasse” or “partisan gridlock.” I hope that we wouldn’t settle for quoting politicians on each side as blaming the other. It would be appropriate to point out the obvious: Our president had tumbled over the edge and was endangering the nation.

Today, we have a similar situation, except that it’s a band of extremist House Republicans who are deliberately sabotaging America’s economy and damaging our national security — all in hopes of gaining leverage on unrelated issues.

Read more: http://www.examiner.net/article/20131006/BLOGS/310069990/-1/sports#ixzz2h2xyeQyG

 

Facts:

Obama ran on health care reform in 2008 and won.
Congress passed the ACA with 60 votes.
After the law was passed the Supreme Court upheld the law.
Obama ran for a second term after the ACA passed and won an electoral landslide.

This has been negotiated in the only way our Constitution allows. Holding the economy hostage because you didn't get what you wanted through the legislative process or through the judicial system or through 2 elections is blackmail plain and simple. Blackmail can never be tolerated because if it wins, everything becomes about threats by the losers of any issue and we lose our democracy to the tyranny of the minority. Republicans are a clear minority and even where they have a majority in one half of one branch of the government they only maintain the majority through gerrymandered congressional districts. Democrats actually received a half million more votes than Republicans in the most recent House election cycle. You have no leg to stand on in this fight. You never did.

 

BTW, their "leg" is called the Constitution. It was written to prevent just such actions as Obama is trying to do. He is not king Obama and hopefully the House will keep him from becoming such.

 

I think the Supreme Court spoke to the constitutionality of the ACA so please stop pretending that the SC hasn't already weighed in. Please stop pretending the the voting public didn't already weigh in. And please, please stop pretending that you have any kind of leg to stand on in this situation. You don't and you can't even see that this blackmail is simply the last desperate gasp of a GOP that is so out of touch that they have no control over their own membership. The Tea Party is killing your party and you will not win no matter what the echo chamber you live in tells you. It's just noise and so is everything you spew. That is why your nonsense falls on deaf ears. Noise is all you have left at this point.

 

If you are basing this argument on what the public supports, then Omamacare should have been repealed and I suspect after the public sees how much it will cost them to join, it will become even more unpopular.

BTW, I really believe Obamacare has no chance in SCOTUS against the Catholic Church and they probably favor Hobby Lobby to boot.

 

You're so full of crap as usual. Anybody with two brain cells to rub together can see that I base my argument on constitutionally passed legislation, the Supreme Court itself, and 2 count'em 2 elections where the first election had health care reform as an issue and the second had the law itself as an issue and was part of the campaign rhetoric. The public has been so confused by Right-wing lies and the intentional slow roll out of the law that most can't tell you that there is no difference between what is called Obamacare and The Affordable Care Act. A large chunk of those that do not like this law are hardcore liberals that think the new law does not go far enough but repukes seem to lump them in with their side, which clearly they are not. Around 30% do not like the law but even of that percentage, many like the individual aspects of the law like keeping adult children on their insurance plans until they are 26, no more pre-existing conditions, and contraceptive coverage for women among other things. Public opinion has been muddied intentionally by the Tea Party primarily supported by the Koch brothers. If people actually look at the law, they tend to like it overwhelmingly. All the polls have shown this consistently.

Now your side has to resort to blackmail to try and dig themselves out of the box canyon they find themselves in. They can't govern, they can't compromise, they only fear losing their jobs to Tea Party challenges, and they are scared to death of looking like the fools they are. I say let them swing in the wind a little while longer and then bring the hammer down on their sorry asses. Let the adults handle this.

 

And after Obamacare was passed, the electorate put the Republicans in charge of the financial bills - TWICE.

"the intentional slow roll out of the law" - blame Obama for that. The Republicans have had no say what-so-ever on Obamacare.

And there is a difference between ACA and Obamacare. ACA had businesses effective this year. Obama postponed it. ACA had people signing up now. Obama postponed it. ACA had salary verification this year, Obama postponed it. etc.

 

No idiot, redistricting and lies kept the House of Reps in the hands of the Right-wing. How else can you explain that the Dems got over a half a million more votes in those races?

You only look like a bunch of sore losers at this point and blackmail makes you look desperate.

 

Still mathematically challenged, I see. For the same reason Obama got 100% of the vote in several Philadelphia districts.

 

Mathematically challenged eh? This from the guy who claimed to be above the 100th percentile.

Oh I see, you lost so there must have been cheating. Right!

 

Some people just never understand math.

 

It's funny when backed into a corner, you start telling me that I must not get something. You never explain exactly what it is you get and I don't but there is always something right? Then you pat yourself on the back and wallow in your own crapulence. You gotta just love the arrogance and ego it takes to do this over and over again but I remain unconvinced that you actually know anything.

 

Your lies do not back anyone or anything into a corner.

 

You haven't even bothered to refute anything I've said. Your opinion isn't proof.

 

OK, RB. It is entirely possible to control the house with <70% of the popular vote. " half a million more votes" is meaningless. BTW, it is probably possible to control the Senate with about 15% of the vote. (I did not go through the calculations, but I will bet I am close.)

If you want proof, who won the election in 2000? Oh, and who got the 500,000 more votes?

 

Again, I think you just like saying...something. Nothing meaningful but something.

The reason it is possible to win more seats with less votes is because of heavily gerrymandered redistricting and of course disenfranchising as many voters as possible by income, race, and age. This all the GOP has left because their policies are total crap.

BTW In 2000, Gore did win Florida but the Supreme Court gave it to Bush. That's a fact.

 

Back to the OP. Would any of you consider this hypothetical a blackmail?

 

Lots of BS and no facts! Sore loser?

 

1. Increasing your font size doesn't make you right. Although, I must say, I like the larger font.

2. If it were within President Obama's Constitutional right to scuttle our Aircraft Carrier fleet, then...sure, we would do our best to negotiate.

3. If Republicans overturned Roe v. Wade and got the Abortion Rights issue sent back to the states (where it belongs), wouldn't the left fight to their dying breath to see that didn't happen?

 

Ever notice how the Left scurry away when illuminated by the light of truth?