The fiscal cliff: Have Republicans forgotten how to negotiate?

President Obama has apparently learned the art of the deal. Can Republicans make him an offer he can't refuse?

John Boehner and Co. "seem to hope a deal will be born by way of immaculate conception," says The New York Times' Paul Krugman.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Talks to avert driving off the fiscal cliff have hit a wall, according to Republican leaders. Indeed, President Obama and congressional Republicans are "a grand canyon" apart, concurs The Week's Paul Brandus. The problem? "The Republicans are, reportedly, outraged by President Obama's opening bid," says Joe Klein at TIME. He wants $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, an extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits, and control over raising the debt ceiling — all in return for $400 billion in future cuts to Medicare. Will he get all that? No. But as Republicans once knew, "that's how people negotiate": I make an offer, you make a counteroffer, we meet somewhere in the middle.

Why were Republicans shocked that the president asked for what he wanted? "We became so accustomed to Obama's earlier habit of making pre-emptive concessions that the very idea he'd negotiate in a perfectly normal way amazed much of Washington," says E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. As they have for the past four years, Republicans "seem to hope a deal will be born by way of immaculate conception, with Obama taking ownership of all the hard stuff while they innocently look on." But after the election, it's a different card game now, and Obama is holding a much better hand. In other words, says Paul Krugman at The New York Times, "Obama has demanded that the GOP put up or shut up — and the response is an aggrieved mumble."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.