Who Won?
Not that this is a serous question. The victory for Boehner was so complete, that even Ezra Klein noticed:
Boehner, of course, could afford to speak plainly. He’d not [only] just won the negotiation but had proven himself in his first major test as speaker of the House. He managed to get more from the Democrats than anyone had expected, sell his members on voting for a deal that wasn’t what many of them wanted and avert a shutdown. There is good reason to think that Boehner will be a much more formidable opponent for Obama than Gingrich was for Clinton.
So why were Reid and Obama so eager to celebrate Boehner’s compromise with his conservative members? The Democrats believe it’s good to look like a winner, even if you’ve lost. But they’re sacrificing more than they let on. By celebrating spending cuts, they’ve opened the door to further austerity measures at a moment when the recovery remains fragile. Claiming political victory now opens the door to further policy defeats later.
(Emphasis supplied.) Boehner may be more formidable than Gingrich. It is hard to tell because Obama is no Clinton when it comes to political bargaining.
Speaking for me only
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