Achieving Bipartisanship

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• postworth

  I thought the election made it very clear that the public expects cooperation which includes compromise. My 8th grade civics class taught me that compromise is one of the principles that makes democracy possible. An educated population runs a close second.

• angry voter

  I think this belies the history that the president had started from a position of compromise and had agreed to enormous cuts that upset his own base and the tea party GOP wouldn’t give an inch on raising taxes so the deal fell through. It is historically unprecedented, pig headed and wrong. It the GOP which as failed to compromise and we all know it.

• Bunny Forsman

  What exactly is his problem with raising taxes for the wealthy? How is it going to hurt him or anyone else?

• Anonymous

  For the Left to give up on raising taxes on the richest would be not a compromise but a capitulation, and for Obama to insist on raising those taxes would not be “arrogance” but doing the job we elected him to do. Any assessment of the problem that assigns equal blame for the gridlock to both parties and suggests the parties make equal sacrifices in resolving it ignores the asymmetry of the cause–Republican obstructionism–and the fact that, well, the Democrats won.

• NJinLA

  Quoting Paul Krugman in today’s NY TIMES editorial:

  “Most of all, standing up to hostage-taking is the right thing to do for the health of America’s political system.

  So stand your ground, Mr. President, and don’t give in to threats. No deal is better than a bad deal.”

  Damn if the Left should” give up its insistence on raising taxes for the upper brackets” as Edwards would wish.

• Pandora55

  My hope is that the Republican house sees that this election shows what the American public wants. They need to stop pushing their private agendas and start doing their jobs!

• http://www.facebook.com/MelodyAnn1130 Melody Phelps Kavooras

  Go to Congress.org. Click on “join the conversation” and “write all your federal officials” and tell them to stop behaving like grade schoolers and what you want them to get done. Then do it again for your state. I recommend sending them monthly reminders that they work for you and that you expect their work to get done. ;-D

• Roger S.

  It’s time to end tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%, we should all agree on that. I would rather pay more taxes and go off the proverbial cliff than let the those people who crashed the economy continue with their current tax rate. It’s not a left position it’s favored by a majority including some millionaires. Those who insist on keeping those rates where they are don’t really seriously care about deficit reduction. Mickey Edwards is a Republican and probably in the upper class. Working middle class are tired of this class warfare that the plutocracy class is waging.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1119217517 Bruce Brummitt

  Message to President Obama on the misnamed ‘fiscal cliff’…You are holding all the cards…you can make Grover Norquist and the Republican House irrelevant by not backing down…Compromise after December 31st…you can get everything you want then.

• stuck in the middle with you

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g a must view clip for congress

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000005995175 Edward Michael Stoddard

  No wonder this guy is pushing for no tax increase compromise on the rich – he’s Republican. I don’t think President Obama should compromise on the tax increase for the rich at all! He can compromise in other areas but not where increased revenue is concerned. Republicans just have to get over themselves and act like sensible grownups, like the rest of us. That includes Mr. Mickey Edwards.

• Guest

  Yes, and the Republican have compromise on nothing. It takes two sides. President Obama has, in his first term, shown a willingness to compromise, but in the area of increasing taxes on the rich, going forward, should NOT be one of them. Republican need to show they can compromise when it comes to taxes. There position of NO is not a compromise.

• Canuck Cruiser

  Spoken like a true radical right wing Republical. If Obama agrees to keep in place all the tax breaks for the mega wealthy, they may consider being a little more flexible on immigration. What kind of insane compromise is that? The reason we voted for Obama is because he’s prepared to stand up to the very powerful and make sure they pay their fair share of taxes.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000005995175 Edward Michael Stoddard

  Yes, and the Republicans have compromised on nothing. It takes two sides. President Obama has, in his first term, shown a willingness to compromise, but in the area of increasing taxes on the rich, going forward, this should NOT be one of them this time. He’s already compromised on this at least once in his first term. Republicans need to show they can compromise when it comes to taxes. They’re position so far has just been NO! That is not a compromise!

• Andrea Morisette Grazzini

  Edwards’ claim that bipartisanship is achievable in Congress “only if the public makes it clear that it is not compromise but lack of compromise that will be punished.” reminds me of commentary I wrote just after the 2010 elections, for MinnPost (http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2010/11/imagine-new-kind-movement-toward-truly-mature-democracy).

  Only pundits like Mr. Moyers and politicians like Congressmen Edwards didn’t catch on to (or more likely, see) my point. Now, they get what I meant in when I said:

  “Commitment to a cooperative government
  Its only demand would be a common sense of commitment to a cooperative, cross-partisan, co-productive government. Implied would be the demand that politicians themselves, not their PR handlers or party proxies, clearly demonstrate their democratic leadership abilities.

  This would call for a “show, not tell” attitude. And would require, instead, measurable evidence of leaders’ very specific and sustained involvement in and impacts on expedient and respectful solutions.

  The carrot — or more aptly stick, incentive behind the movement’s message would be: “If you can’t play nice politics, don’t plan on surviving the next election.” Which, as evidence and history suggests, would otherwise likely engage partisan passions just enough to swing the populist pendulum back to reset again. This and other troubling evidence increasingly shows that short-term change is unlikely at best.

  Get in the game — and support all citizens:
  The underlying point for liberals is if you don’t get into the game, you’ll be out. For conservatives, if you don’t support all citizens, get ready for an uprising.”

  Andrea Morisette Grazzini
  Founder, DynamicShift (http://dynamicshift.org)
  CEO, WetheP a start-up e-democracy company

• eurekamike

  I’m for compromise when it is compromise. But Mickey Edwards suggestion that we trade tax increases on the wealthy for immigration reform is not a honest compromise. The Republicans need to do immigration reform in order to patch up their terrible relationship with Latinos, so allowing them to sign in on immigration reform will gain them Latino votes. Abandoning increased taxes on the wealthy will cost the Democrats votes. Nice try at compromise, but no cookie.

• http://www.facebook.com/lynn.bush.5 Lynn Bush

  The Trickle Down policy of the Republicans is older that many of the people who voted in this election and it still does not work to induce “job creators” to create jobs. The constantly shifting line of compromise drawn over the last 4 years should be a solid indications of any good intentions on their part. When a Republican Congress utters the word “compromise” red flags should be going up.

• Terry

  Mr Edwards, shame on you. “Presidential arrogance? Far from it. Apparently you wouldn’t recognize a fact or real bipartisanship if it hit you in the face. Like most in your party, you misrepresent facts & history & truth while professing to advocate “compromise”. Fact: every major law enacted in last 4 yrs contained major ideas & policies advocated by Repubs & accepted by Prez/Dems in spirit of compromise. Then united Repub Congressional members voted against, excoriated, condemned, demagogued the law, Dems, & Prez. Time after time Repubs negotiated major weakening of legislation & then walked away to filibuster, block, condemn. You folks are very good at perpetrating lies on the American people in pursuit of your own crass political power. Your party is fond of wrapping yourselves in the flag, patriotism, honor, & Constitution. But it’s your party that tries to subvert democracy by buying & stealing elections. Be a real patriot sir, become reborn with a dedication to truth & ethics.

• Peter L. Fritsch

  I agree that Obama continues the hawk agenda and thank the writer for bringing this out. Concerning taxes, I believe we need to move to a pre-Reagan tax structure, which most of the western world has been using, to provide basic health care, infrastructure and a minimal military.

• http://www.facebook.com/lianne.schneider1 Lianne Schneider

  This is not “compromise” nor is it anything more than a cover for the
  same old Republican mantra – no new taxes for the rich. I have no
  respect for any conservative who will not acknowledge that their
  intransigence about a small tax increase for those with billions is a
  case of putting greed and selfishness ahead of the general welfare.
  There is a great deal of evidence that higher tax rates on the wealthy
  do NOT slow down the economy and that the super rich do not create as
  many jobs as small businesses on which this President HAS lowered taxes.
  Just how much does a multi-billionaire need before he has enough?? And
  before he stops throwing temper tantrums over losing and threatening
  other people’s livelihoods because he doesn’t want to look at the facts.

• Anonymous

  NO! We ABSOLUTELY need to raise revenues to bring down the deficit. The extra money of the wealthy, probably not productively employed just siting in Treasuries in mutual funds anyway, is a much better way to raise a few hundred billion to reduce the deficit (and thereby treasury borrowings), than reducing the spending power of the elderly to engage in economy stimulating purchases of healthcare or other essential goods and services. Why do people refuse to see this?

• MonaInk

  Why are Republicans so insistent on protecting the wealth the wealthiest of the wealthy? There can be no political equality until there is economic equality, to paraphrase FDR.

• http://www.facebook.com/macthefloorguy Mac Gardner

  Peter, asking the top 2% to pay an extra 3% in tax was a core promise that Obama WAS ELECTED TO DO, and the concept is endorsed by several billionaires, including Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, and our local billionaire, George Kaiser. Gates and Buffet are still #1 and # 2 in wealth in the USA, and George is about #20, but these 3 men are the most generous givers to charity and good causes in this country.

  When President Reagan cut the top tax rates from 70% to 28% in 1981, he did so against the advice of his Budget director David Stockman and 5 other administration economists.who all warned that he would create a severe recession OR WORSE within a year, would drive interest rates through the roof, could cause bank failures, mortgage defaults, high unemployment, and crash the financial markets. Reagan’s “Laffer Curve” blew a hole in the budget immediately and the government demand for borrowed money drove interest rates through the roof. When we bought our home in 1984, the BEST fixed rate mortgage rates were 18.5% and unemployment was 10.5%. Reagan TRIPLED the national debt that took 200 years to accumulate in 8 short years. The 1987 stock market crash was the worst in history with the equal to a 2,500 point drop in the Dow in a single day based on todays valuation.

  David Stockman resigned in 1985 in protest of Reagan’s out of control spending. Under both Bush administrations the welfare for the wealthy programs continued, and the deficit soared and will continue to explode until we undo at least some of the source of the deficits which began to explode under Ronald Reagan.

  David Stockman’s essay “HOW MY GOP DESTROYED THE U,S. ECONOMY”. is a good 10 minute read, and also makes mention about how extremism is strangling the GOP, and when their agenda is obstruction, the republicans are destroying America.

• robnard

  Have you forgotten the Tea Party pledge never to agree to a tax increase? The GOP needs to reinvent its ideology. Obama is always the target. Time to share the responsibility with the Dems. but the extremely wealthy still call the shots in the GOP.

• Anonymous

  The problem is that the GOTP definition of “compromise” is “A give and take solution in which the other party gives us everything we want and we take it.”

  Doesn’t work, really.

• Anonymous

  That’s a ridiculous notion of compromise and that is not surprising given that it comes from a Republican.

• Anonymous

  Send that message directly to him. He’s not going to read it here. No kidding, the American public needs to apply the pressure on Boehner. All but the die-hard right wing know that letting the tax cuts expire on the top brackets is the sensible thing to do. If we all take action on this the Congressional Republicans will get the message. There are not enough wing nuts to keep re-electing them forever.

• Anonymous

  I’ve just posted a similar comment elsewhere, but didn’t give the link. I wish I could give you 25 ^! Since there are only a few weeks left this year, I say weekly reminders are needed.

• Anonymous

  Seriously, I don’t think that was an honest try at compromise. Are there no Republicans who can discuss this like adults?

• SteveW

  because both political parties have to leverage their base by creating strife between thier party and the other there is no way you can compromise because the system does not reward compromise. the politicians are there to get elected not to fix problems and until we change that you will get politicians that are in a perpetual race for their office. term limits must be put in place to stop this insantiy while we still have a country.

• sabine

  The President needs to be flexible and look at taxes and tax cuts within the larger framework of tax reform rather than focusing only on tax cuts for the wealthy. However, the direction that this reform needs to go to is generally clear. A small number of Americans and many big corporations have had all of the beenfits and none of the burdens- this needs to change but with flexibility on specific points! I hope both parties can manage to agree at least on that point!

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=664746728 Winter Green

  You are kidding! The ‘taxpayers’ did not cause this crisis and should not continue paying for it. How outrageous. The cause of this crisis was the deregulation of the Global Financial Sector. Living overseas from the mid1980s until 2008 I can tell you that every where people were given ‘cheap credit’ (actually debt burden), housing bubbles, leverage and arbitrage plus all the ‘creative financial instruments. Cities, regions, businesses … everyone was encouraged to ‘borrow’. That was the messaged rationale for the ‘growth economy’ … keep the money moving. We’ve been living in a debt economy with Global Giant Corporations, Private Equity and other ‘investors’ aggregating the money upward. No one has been held accountable … not the crisis, the job loses, Libor, hoarding of Corporate money, buying back stock options in order to increase profits to shareholders.

  What is the purpose when a few uber wealthy plutocrats and a handful of Global Giant Corporations control so much of the world’s resources, economies, budgets etc? How does that serve our societies or our planet?

• Sherry Jones

  Don’t you get it? We are in a revolution of wealth vs. poverty….worldwide! I don’t want the president to compromise on raising taxes for the wealthy. Owning 5 mansions and a jet requires one to “give back” to the country….it’s not an option. If I hear one more posting of glutenous profits by the wealthiest corporations and individuals, I will be physically ill. It’s time to shut down money-grabbing and level the wealth. I pay $936 a month in Federal Taxes on a teacher’s salary…and what are the Koch brothers paying?

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Arnold-Schwarzzie/690595710 Arnold Schwarzzie

  Edwards’ position regards taxes for upper incomers is SO out of touch with the current zeitgeist! Is he a stooge, a shill, or can’t he see past his own bank account?

• Pat

  Corporate shills are worst thing to happen to America, and to democracy.
  end radical right by insulating predatory capitalism from Bill of Rights as incompatible.