Here's "My" Lunch -- Take It

Conservative law-and-order types have often remarked, "We don't negotiate with hostage-takers!" While a statement like that goes a bit too far -- limited negotiation can prove effective -- I believe that a kernel of truth is contained in the sentiment. A key notion in any type of situation in which there are, at least, two sides is never to bargain away your chips. If you hand over too much, then you lose any degree of leverage.

If you believe that Pres. Obama is a bad negotiator -- I think it is mainly a well-orchestrated ruse -- then his chief problem is that he keeps bargaining away far too many of the things he says he supports. Every time he caves in, the GOP asks for a little bit more and so he is "forced" to give away even more in order to reach a "compromise" decision.

Yesterday, Robert Reich made much the same point by telling a story of when he was a child.

When I was a small boy I was bullied more than most, mainly because I was a foot shorter than than everyone else. They demanded the cupcake my mother had packed in my lunchbox, or, they said, they’d beat me up. After a close call in the boy’s room, I paid up. Weeks later, they demanded half my sandwich as well. I gave in to that one, too. But I could see what was coming next. They’d demand everything else. Somewhere along the line I decided I’d have a take a stand. The fight wasn’t pleasant. But the bullies stopped their bullying.

I hope the President decides he has to take a stand, and the sooner the better. Last December he caved in to Republican demands that the Bush tax cut be extended to wealthier Americans for two more years, at a cost of more than $60 billion. That was only the beginning — the equivalent of my cupcake.

Last night he gave away more than half the sandwich — $39 billion less than was budgeted for 2010, $79 billion less than he originally requested. Non-defense discretionary spending — basically, everything from roads and bridges to schools and innumerable programs for the poor — has been slashed...

I realize that in crafting legislation there has to be a certain amount of give-and-take. That is the way the process works. But what we predominantly have seen during the 2+ years of the Obama administration is a tremendous amount of giving on the part of the Democrats with very little taking.

If Obama cannot find the courage to draw a line that he will not cross, as Reich suggests, the GOP will demand the president's entire lunch and he'll hand it over with little more than a whimper. Of course, the problem with this scenario is that Obama's lunch isn't even his own -- it's yours and mine!