John Hinderaker says that Democrats want to play "Let's Make a Deal", but that's not how laws are made.
President Obama and Harry Reid keep saying they want to make a "deal." But that isn't how it works. The Senate needs to pass a bill. Next, leaders of each chamber appoint representatives who participate in a conference committee. The conference committee comes up with a compromise between the House bill and the Senate bill, and that conference bill goes back to each chamber for approval. It will be appropriate for Harry Reid to negotiate with Mitch McConnell over a Senate bill, but Boehner should go on vacation unless and until the Senate acts.What the Democrats are trying to do, of course, is gain absolution for all of their fiscal sins by negotiating a cosmic deal with the GOP that, as I once put it, would put Republicans in the position of going over the waterfall holding hands with the Democrats. If Republicans are dumb enough to let that happen-which I doubt-then it will indeed be time for a third party.
The Democratic Senate has now gone for more than two years without adopting a budget. That is not only poor practice, it violates federal law. Why won't the Democrats adopt a budget? Because they don't dare put down on paper, for the American people to see, what they really want: skyrocketing spending, higher taxes and spiraling deficits. Forever. The Democrats don't want to commit to anything until they have bullied the Republicans into signing onto it.
That last sentence is key: the Democrats don't want to go on the record until they have Republican agreement.
