Bad Advice Is No Treat For Democrats

While the 'Obamacare problems' stories that some members of the media had been holding onto during the near-default crisis began flooding out over the weekend, we've been keeping our attention focused on a more important story in DC - namely, the budget conference committee, that lobbyists also have their eyes on.

We'll admit that Healthcare.gov has already had it's share of problems, and many of those should have been expected. That said, the President has already called in experts to triage and solve the problems as fast and as well as possible. Furthermore, in states like Oregon that haven't been trying to sabotage the system, the ACA is working as intended - getting people without health insurance to finally get some health care coverage.

As Max Ehrenfreund stated so succinctly over the weekend at Washington Monthly, if America had just listened to liberals, who've always favored a single-payer system, the current problems with the health care signup wouldn't exist anyway. Democrats gave up that option early on, however, based on bad advice from normally wise people.

Think of it like that one bad pumpkin in the patch, that always ends up splattered all over the road.

In a similar way, Ezra Klein - an expert in many subjects, and a writer our staff generally trusts - made an incredibly amateur mistake recently. Last Thursday, Klein published a piece in the Washington Post saying that Congressional Democrats should go into the current budget negotiations admitting they won't be able to get any more tax revenue from Republicans.

Like that bad pumpkin, Klein is wrong - and Congressional Democrats should be aware of it before they slip and agree to a disastrous budget.

If Congressional Democrats would follow Klein's advice this time, their first failing would be tactical. In fact, it would be the exact tactical mistake President Obama and his advisors made in the health care battle - setting their initial negotiation point at the metaphorical midpoint, effectively assuring any settlement will be more favorable to their opposition than to your supporters. Klein himself even pointed out this strategy was a failing one back in December of 2010.

Their second failing would be to blindly accept as a fact Klein's position that Congressional Democrats can't raise taxes - which was proven false at the beginning of 2013.

As David Fahrenthold pointed out in the Washington Post this weekend, four major national crises have been caused by Republicans since 2010, and in one of them - the fiscal cliff battle at the beginning of this year, Democrats were able to force Republicans to vote to raise taxes. What's more, the tax burden on the wealthiest went up the most during that battle.

The third reason Congressional Democrats should mostly ignore Klein's advice in this case is simple: leverage for the 2014 races. As Sam Seder noted to Chris Hayes recently, there is only so much power that any one advocacy group has to effect potential change. If liberal Democrats are fighting more centrist Democrats not to give away Democratic priorities like immigration reform, universal pre-K, and climate change measures, they'll be wasting energy and resources which could be better aimed at forcing Republicans to cave - as Democrats did when they stood united and won the default battle and with the fiscal cliff at the beginning of this year.

Anyone, of any political persuasion, who also understands the policy realities America is now facing knows that - regardless of any realistic budget cuts or threats from Republicans like Mitch McConnell - our nation is simply not collecting enough revenue to handle our responsibilities.

If the Congressional Democratic caucus wants to end up with a budget that accurately reflects what Americans want from their government, they'd be wise to look at advice like that Klein provided on taxes as more trick than treat.

A Most Important Lesson

Even as many Americans begin their preparations for the weekend today, scores of politicians and many of our media colleagues are already ramping up for the next round of budget battles in DC.

It's ironic, really. After Wednesday's 'Come To Jesus' moment by moderate Republicans in Congress, many of our colleagues in political media are still excitedly talking about all the lessons the Republican Party has yet to learn from their devastating defeat dealt to them by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. Yet many of our more tightly wound colleagues seem to have missed one of the most important lessons in life themselves - a lesson that this week's displays by right-wing extremists should have taught moderate Republicans as well as members of the political media.

Indeed, many people we know outside the media business are getting ready for a weekend of relaxing autumn festivals, catching up on sports or television shows, or visiting with some old friends. In short, when people can, folks outside of our business are getting ready to have a day or two off.

Even on our own staff, discussion of a commentary piece by Ezra Klein from Thursday - one that gives a completely wrongheaded assessment about what the Democrats in Congress should do next - drove more chatter than it should for a beautiful autumn Friday.

While we might decide to address that issue on Monday, the fact is, even we forgot - for a moment - the lesson that the right-wing extremists should have taught everyone who's been paying attention.

Indeed, some of our conservative colleagues in the media reminded us of that lesson this week, specifically Robert Costa of National Review Online and CNBC, and Dave Weigel of Slate.

For years, Weigel has been one of our go-to sources for sane takes on what the insane right thinks. His snark is a turn-off to some people, though some of our staff finds that snark gives the perfect amount of bite to stories that otherwise might be a bit too heavy. If you're not already following Weigel on Twitter, we recommend heavily that you do so today.

Even as Weigel is a master of the snark, Costa's work throughout this debt ceiling debacle has provided steady, even-handed, snark-free news reporting. Costa's view of what has been going on inside the Capitol, on the right and the far right, has been fantastically valuable to anyone who cares about truly honest journalism. As Erik Wemple at the Washington Post also noted on Thursday, if Fox News followed Costa's lead, they'd be in fabulous shape. Of course, Fox isn't really in the business of news. They're in television - which is to say, entertainment, not news.

The lesson both Weigel and Costa teach in how they report is the same lesson the extremists in the GOP also taught, in the inverse, this week.

That lesson is simple. If you want to get ahead in life, on a daily basis, there's really no reason to run around screaming your head off, and throwing it around at people. That's going too far, and usually only leads to people running away from you.

In short, if you really want to get ahead in life, you also have to know when to stop.

Ringing The Bell

After a long two weeks, America and the world breathed a deep sigh of relief when, last night, both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives finally passed a bill to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling - until early in 2014 - and President Obama signed it into law.

Make no mistake - this fight went the full twelve rounds and more, though it was the American people who were feeling most of the punches. As Chris Cillizza noted in the Washington Post, politicians will say there weren't any true winners in this match, even though we all know that's not entirely true.

If anyone won anything in this fight, President Obama and Congressional Democrats - as well as the American people - have to be on that winners list. By standing together, they've now proven that the majority of the nation can stand up to the political bullies of the extremist right - and that the right wing will back down.

For what it's worth, the costs of this battle were significant. S&P figured up the cost to the U.S. economy in this round was $24 billion, nearly 0.6% of America's fourth quarter GDP, and the nation lost nearly 1 million jobs. That doesn't even take into account all the individuals and businesses who now have a serious ding on their credit, thanks to more than two weeks without paychecks or customers.

The most visible hit, however, was a political one, where the Republican Party frankly knocked their own block off - and the Tea Party effectively is now bleeding out on the floor.

According to the latest Pew Poll, Americans now dislike the extremist Tea Party wing of the Republican Party more than they ever have before. The same poll shows Republicans are so ashamed of their extremist wing, most of them are in denial the Tea Party is even part of the GOP. What's more, the nominal leader of the Tea Party insurgents, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, outright admitted Wednesday afternoon that his entire goal in this disaster was to raise money for any future political campaigns he might have.

As Ezra Klein joked on Wednesday, Cruz may as well have been a sleeper agent for the Democratic Party, as the damage he's done to the GOP is deeper than almost anything the Democratic Party could have accomplished.

Conservatives even began taking shots at their own closed loop media infrastructure, blaming it for only telling them what they wanted to hear. No surprise that the biggest blowhard in right-wing media, Rush Limbaugh now says the Republican Party is the most irrelevant party he can remember.

You built that, Mr. Limbaugh. Enjoy.

As much as we'd love to say this perpetual brawl is now over for good, we don't truly believe it is. Neither do other experienced journalists like Michael Tomasky or Sahil Kapur.

Still, when counting up the costs of this fight, it's important to note the cost/benefit ratio.

The extremist Republicans cost the nation nearly a million jobs - over $24 billion in the economy already - and have effectively destroyed their political chances for 2014 in the Senate, and quite possibly in the House.

Here's the benefit Republicans gained for themselves and the nation, politically speaking, after sixteen days of stupidity:

Nothing.

Hope it was worth the fight, Republicans.