Negotiating to lose, not to win

The Democrats control the House. And the Senate. And the White House.

So why the hell are they negotiating with the GOP and preemptively caving to their demands — sometimes in exchange for zero votes? And why do the media act like they should be?

Case in point: the infrastructure bill. This piece in The Week (via Yahoo News) tells us this:

So many questions:

• The infrastructure bill was announced as $2.25 trillion, but is down to $1.7 trillion. Why?

• Cutting half a trillion dollars didn’t even impress Republicans. It wasn’t “well-received”. Why are Biden or his staff even still consulting Republicans if immediately slashing their initial proposal doesn’t even move the GOP?

• Why are Democrats looking to “compromise” with the Republicans? Biden’s the president. The GOP is the minority party. Why are you letting them control the conversation? Why are you giving in to their demands?

• Are they actually trying to lose? Democrats gutted the stimulus bill and got zero GOP votes in the Senate. It kinda seems like they’re either the least politically savvy people on the planet, or they actually want to lose.

If the problem is Manchin, as the piece linked to at the end of the article suggests, then the focus should be with him, a fellow Democrat (at least in name) — either closed-doors, or by calling him out in public.

Democratic leadership either needs to admit they (or their donors) don’t want to pass a $2.25 trillion infrastructure bill and stop blaming it in the GOP, or else stop unilaterally surrendering to Republicans and getting nothing in return.

And the media need to stop acting like negotiating with the Republicans on this makes any sense whatsoever and tell it like it is

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