COMMENTARY | Republicans walked out on a member of the president's staff after a budget meeting. Discussions revolve around massive debt, taxes and lots of public bickering. It's not the 1995 to 1996 budget battles between President Bill Clinton and a conservative Congress. It's a repeat of the same events 15 years later.
President Obama sent his wing man, Vice President Joe Biden, to talk to Republican leaders in Congress about what the president wants from the budget. According to the Associated Press, Biden said we need to raise taxes. Speaker of the House John Boehner said raising taxes was "off the table."
The GOP then walked out of the discussions abruptly.
This budget discussion can go one of two ways. Either the sides compromise or they don't. The GOP walking out is just a symbolic gesture to let the American public know how they feel about raising taxes. The Democrats still have the upper hand, as they control one side of Congress.
Clinton compromised on his budget proposals with Newt Gingrich and the GOP-led Congress. When Clinton got re-elected, the Republicans made him pay for his popularity. They filed articles of impeachment against him regarding a lie under oath about having sex.
If history serves, the Republicans and Democrats will bicker back and forth for weeks. The two sides will come together in crunch time and get the work done. There will be a combination of what both sides want. In the end, it won't be perfect, but both sides will say they accomplished a lot.
Obama clearly understands Clinton's position. He got re-elected after a budget battle but paid a price. Obama will surely try to compromise, but only after making Republicans sweat out a deal. Plus, the current commander-in-chief probably won't be having sex with interns any time soon.
Obama and his team have surely learned from recent events. There are fears of citizens having their benefits reduced or removed altogether. Obama played into this argument after his speech about bringing troops home from Afghanistan. The president said it's now time to focus on domestic issues, not wartime problems.
The Republicans want to make cuts. They didn't learn from the special congressional election in May when a Democrat defeated a Republican in a conservative-leaning area. Instead of the GOP placing fear in people's minds over "death panels," now the Democrats can make voters feel like their entitlements will be taken away if conservatives stay in power. Kathy Hochul used Medicare cuts to win against her GOP opponent, Jane Corwin, in upstate New York, according to ABC News.
A walk out by Republicans is no big deal. This is still a process, and the work will get done eventually before something drastic happens.
It's a win-win for the Democrats if they can parlay as much budget-cutting as possible until the 2013 session of Congress starts. By that time, the 2012 election would have decided who controls Congress after the next president is elected.
Who wins when Republicans walk out? The Democrats do eventually because the president owns veto power.
William Browning is a research librarian specializing in U.S. politics. Born in St. Louis, Browning is active in local politics and served as a campaign volunteer for President Barack Obama and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
