Reply #54: I am a sorcerer with powerful magic..... [View All]

[sofa king]

My ability to predict the future comes through a strange and secretive ritual, of which the Republicans and many posters here are totally unaware....

But I'll tell you what it is. I actually read the legislation, including the sunset dates, and then compared those dates to a magical device called a calendar. Similar to astrology, a calendar allows one to guess when a particular law will be in effect, and when it will end. Reading the legislation allows one to guess what a law will do and how it works. I am merely an apprentice in using these incantations compared to the President.

But seriously, for some reason the Republicans have a real problem anticipating the consequences of the agreements they enter into with the President and the Democrats in Congress. It's all written out for anyone to see, for example at THOMAS. I assume that they have legislative analysts, as I used to be, who are supposed to warn them about these things, but for some reason they did not heed the warnings.

I think that the Republicans assumed that further obstruction, hostage-taking, and disingenuous bargaining would allow them to reverse the unfortunate (for them) details to which they previously agreed. But every time the negotiations go behind closed doors, they come out backing the President's new plan. The pivot around which the negotiations seem to turn is Republican greed. Greed can be easily turned against the greedy, I guess, though I don't know how to do it myself.