John Boehner and Mitch McConnell co-wrote a piece for the Washington Post this morning, entitled “Where we and Democrats can work together.” I thought the piece was going to refer to areas of possible of cooperation in the next Congress, but it turned out that the piece only addresses the current lame-duck session of Congress. This might not surprise you, but there are only two areas where the Republicans and the Democrats can work together in the lame-duck session.
If President Obama and Democratic leaders put forward a plan during the lame-duck session to cut spending and stop the tax hikes on all Americans, they can count on a positive response from Republicans. If the president and Democratic leaders don’t act before the end of the year, however, House and Senate Republicans will work to get the job done in the new Congress. But we hope it doesn’t come to that.
In other words, the Republicans are not interested in passing a food safety bill or ratifying the New START Treaty, or extending unemployment insurance, of passing the Defense Authorization Act, or doing anything except extending Bush’s tax cuts for the rich and slashing government programs.
I hope John and Mitch have a nice time at the White House today.
