Hi,
I happen to know John Mauldin who made the remark and he is a good guy. I doubt he wanted the information to go public however. He has lots of Washington contacts and probably might find things a bit challenging.
What a lot of folks are missing is this. When you are negotiating you have to be negotiating with a decision maker or you end up making all the concessions while the other party agrees to nothing. Boehner likely cut a deal with BO when they agreed to the revamping of the Bush tax cuts; basically saying OK you got your tax deal, now we do some cuts.
Recall when Boehner said he was not going to negotiate with the president anymore? My guess is BO probably did not make commitments, waffled on them, or did not honor some commitments he made. When one party does not negotiate in good faith, it's time to stop. While I am not a Boehner fan, this is one time I agree with him.
He needs to let the pressure build on the democrats to the point they are forced to negotiate in good faith.
What is the worst thing that is going to happen? The deadline will come, and the proposed increases in spending will not happen. Remember these are not spending cuts, just reduction in increases. So the public learns that maybe cutting government expenses is not such a bad thing because nothing happened.
If you have ever had to try to negotiate with a person who has no balls, cannot or will not commit, it is beyond frustrating. Boehner had little choice but to walk away.
Regards,
5412
